Import alarms: CSV file structure

The import function in Cloud Notify is, together with the export function, built to easily and effortlessly copy alarms from one device to another. Additionally, you can use the import function to prepare alarms in a CSV file and load them all at once into your Cloud Notify app.

How to: export and import alarms

View the "Set up alarms"-guide on the left about the actual steps of exporting and importing a CSV file.

CSV file structure

The structure of the CSV file need to be correct for the import function to work properly. The headers (first row) of column 1-9 should look like this:

Type Name Severity Address Condition Treshold On delay Operator instructions Access Category

Each column represents a different setting and these are all explained below. You can easily navigate to the desired section by pressing the corresponding header above.

Tip: an easy template

You can quickly and easily create a template by first creating a single alarm using the X4 Cloud interface and then exporting this alarm to a CSV file, or download an empty template.

Type

This is the alarm type. SMTP based alarms have type "unary". All other alarms, since they're a triggered based event (true or false), have type "boolean".

Name

You can name the alarms freely. It is advised to enter a very brief description of the alarm, i.e. "emergency stop zone B".

Severity

There are three severity options to choose from:

  • High: for critical alarms
  • Medium: for important alarms
  • Low: for "nice to know" alarms

Address

Here you enter the variable address for which the alarm is ment for. The address is fully explained in the "Import variables" article. Below you will find an example address of every supported protocol.

Protocol Example address
BACnet/IP 2.4.85
Digital Input GPIO::
EtherNet/IP Line1.RunTime.ACC
Modbus TCP 2.1
OPC UA ns=2;s=20001
Siemens S7-300/400/1200/1500 D3.2.1
SMTP SMTP::Keyw:High

The table below lists all options if you're looking to add Connection Monitoring alarms that alert you when the IXrouter's own connection has been lost. Details on the connection types can be found here.

Protocol Example address
VPN connection __vpn_connected__
Configuration connection __mqtt_connected__
Cloud Logging connection __mqtt_ixlogger_connected__

Condition

Here you enter the logical operator of your alarm trigger condition. These are listed in the table below, including support per data type.

Online (IXON Cloud) Offline (CSV file) Boolean String Float Integer
Equal to ==  
Not equal to !=  
Smaller than <    
Smaller than or equal to <=      
Greater than >    
Greater than or equal to >=      

Treshold

Here you enter the threshold of your alarm trigger condition. This is the variable value at, below, or above which the alarm is triggered, depending on the condition. The table below shows the available options and examples per data type.

Variable type Options Example value
Boolean "TRUE" or "FALSE" TRUE
String Plain text "emergency stop ON"
Float Number with decimal point 2.55
Integer Whole numbers 3

On delay

In some cases it may only be important to trigger an alarm when the condition is met for a specific time period, i.e. if a temperature exceeds 800°C for longer than 5 minutes. These "5 minutes" can be set here in milliseconds.

No delay

Enter 0 if you do not wish to use this setting.

Online (IXON Cloud) Offline (CSV file)
Over a period On delay
0 seconds 0
1 second 1000
1 minute 60000
1 hour 3600000

Connection monitoring alarms are triggered when the condition has been met for at least 1 hour. The delay is set in hours. Unlike other alarms, which are set in milliseconds.

Online (X4 Cloud) Offline (CSV file)
Over a period On delay
1 hour 1
3 hours 3

Operator instructions

Here you enter the text message, instructions, and any additional information that is important to be enclosed with the alarm.

Access Category

Here you enter the access category that will receive the alarm. Everybody in this access category will receive the alarm, so please consider this when setting up your alarm.

 

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