Rules (or business rules) within Axeda® Connected Product Management Applications identify some actions or events that are executed based on the existence of a watched action, event or state. For example, a simple rule may direct the Platform to watch the value of a usage item and, if the value rises too high, stop power to the related asset.
Each Usage rule in is comprised of three parts:
o An event, which determines when the rule is evaluated:
§ On Calculation - rule evaluated after asset data is transformed from raw countable data to usage data
§ On Schedule - rule evaluated on a regular schedule
o A condition, which defines whether or not to execute the rule:
§ Expression - a mathematical and Boolean expression comparing usage data values (usage items) to other usage items or to static numbers; if the expression evaluates to true, the related action is run. For example, you can create a "not equal to" Compare to Constant expression that compares the latest incremental value logged for the related usage item to a user-defined constant; if the comparison shows that the usage item value is not equal to the constant, the expression evaluates to true causing the rule to run.
§ Custom - any custom condition created and applied to Usage rules. (For information about creating a custom condition, contact Axeda Technical Support.)
o One or more actions, which determine what the Platform does when the condition is true. The actions available for selection for a rule are any system-related actions (termed "Other") configured in the Configuration application, action configuration pages. These are labeled as "Other" in the action configuration page and can include the following: Event, Notification, Alarm, Change Asset Condition, Custom, and Set Usage Item Value. In addition, you can create a e-mail action directly in this rule wizard: this e-mail is valid only for this rule and not available or stored in the Platform for reuse.
The Usage application supports two types of rules: Calculation and Scheduled.
o A calculation rule is used to determine if usage data falls outside of a particular range. For example, you can create a calculation rule that determines whether a customer is using an asset more or less than his contract allows which could indicate he has the wrong model or wrong contract or both.
o A scheduled rule polls the usage data on a regular basis and takes action based on the information it determines.