Add Rules
All existing and added entities of E&A can be combined to create rules (rule map) for each server, which will define server behavior if events are triggered. This section will guide you through related features, explain the meaning and purpose of used items and provide usage examples.
The rule map is created via the Event & Action Configurator: to open it, go to the Events & Actions section in Macula Console and then click Rules in the menu on the left, then select the target server for which you wish to add the E&A setup, and then click the Open configurator button on the upper panel. To change the target server, click the Change button next to the server name and then pick one from the available server list.
The Event & Action Configurator will open in a new window; by default, no rules are defined.
You can pre-create all events, actions, conditions and schedules beforehand using the relevant menu sections in Macula Console, or create necessary items as you go from the configurator. Delay timers can only be created as you go for the specified rule and are not saved as independent entities.
Add and Edit Events
Choose the target item from the Events list and then click the + Event button below: configuration dialog box will then open with the target device pre-selected. Here you can add alerts from device digital inputs and VCA notifications; see the detailed description of how to create events in the Add Events section.
Events are arranged by sources. Typical event sources are: channels, channel groups, servers, user buttons, video walls, external services.
Add and Edit Actions
Choose a target item from the Actions list and then click the + Action button below: the configuration dialog box will then open with the target device pre-selected. Here you can add reactions to the following types of events:
trigger device digital output
write to OS Application log
activate target device's PTZ preset
activate main/secondary stream recording profile
send an email notification
run a third-party program
See the detailed description of how to create and configure actions in the Add Actions section.
Manage Rules
To start combining events, actions and additional controls, simply follow this scheme:
find your desired event in the Events list - use search filter on the top panel, if required
use the < and > arrows or double-click events to add/remove them to/from the Rules list
click free space of the target rule in the Rules list (use CTRL or Shift to select multiple ones) - the selected rows will then become highlighted green
find your desired action in the Actions list - use search filter on top, if required
use the < and > arrows or double-click actions to add/remove them to/from the Rules list, and the + button to add more than one action for a single event
select desired actions and add auxiliary controls by clicking buttons on the bottom panel (see description below for details)
The rule header displays the event source and event itself; below, related actions are listed, each with its own set of special controls. Actions of the same type are listed under the same rule header; for all other cases, the events are duplicated, resulting in a separate rule. One condition, one schedule and one delay timer can be attached to each action.
Once the rule map has been created, click the OK button in the bottom right corner to save and exit. Note that simply closing the Event & Action Configurator is analogous to clicking Cancel: no changes will be saved.
Conditions, Schedules and Delay Timers
For each event/action pair that is added to the rule map, additional options can be defined in the form of conditions, delays periods and schedules. Select one or multiple target events from the Rules list and then click desired control item in the bottom panel.
To remove auxiliary controls from a rule, select it in the Rules list and click the Clear button on the bottom panel. Note that all defined conditions, timers and schedules will be removed from the target rule, and it is not possible to de-attach them one by one.
Delay Timers
To add a pause timer for specific actions, select one or more of the mapped rules (use CTRL+click or Shift+click to mark multiple items) subject to delay, and then click the Delay Timer button on the bottom panel of the central part of the Event & Action Configurator.
Set the delay period for the target timer. Time can be adjusted in the following ways:
click hours/minutes/seconds and then use the UP and DOWN arrows on the right, or
click hours/minutes/seconds and use the mouse scroll, while still holding mouse cursor over the relevant timestamp section, or
enter the time manually using the keyboard numpad.
Next, choose the pause mode:
Create a separate action: new actions of the same type will be created regardless of the acting delay timer, and queued in the same way as the original delayed action
Extend a postponed action: new events of the same type will restart the timer, postponing the resulting action for the specified amount of time
When you have finished, click OK to save and exit the dialog box. The newly created delay timer will be assigned to the pre-selected actions.
To remove a delay timer from rule configuration, click the timer to highlight it within the rule, and then click the Clear button in the bottom panel. Note that, if there are schedules and/or conditions attached to the same rule, they will be removed as well.
Schedules
Schedules are used when you wish a rule to be active based on a pre-defined itinerary. You can create any number of custom schedules via the Conditions section in the Macula Console and then use them for rule control: see Create Schedules section in this document for a detailed explanation of this.
Select one or multiple target events from the Rules list and then click Schedule button in the bottom panel.
Conditions
Conditions are supplementary variables that can allow or prevent action execution. The decision is taken based on the condition state: if the condition is ON, the planned action will be executed; if the condition is OFF, the action will not be performed regardless of the frequency of the triggered event. The condition state can be changed as a result of some other event, so ad additional rule should be added to perform this task; alternatively, you can manually set and unset conditions at your will. Thus, conditions allow the activation and deactivation of rules without requiring them to be entirely deleted.
To assign a condition to the rule, choose one or multiple target events from the Rules list and click the Condition button on the bottom panel, then either select target condition from the list or create a new one.
Please read the Conditions topic of this document if this feature is new to you: it contains detailed description and usage examples.
Source and Target Channels
Some actions participating in the rule creation need a related channel to be specified so that these rules can be properly executed. For such actions, the source/target channel is specified when you create a rule involving such an action: corresponding additional buttons appear on the bottom panel or the rule map section, next to conditions, schedules and delay timers. Each action allows exactly one related channel; if you need, for instance, two snapshots to be sent via email, just add two actions of the same type and specify different source channels.
When you combine such actions with events that already are related to some channel (e.g., Video Lost, Motion, VCA, DI), that channel is selected automatically for the resulting action. For the rest of events, the channel is not set by default and you need to use the target/source channel buttons on the panel below the rules. Also, you can set a different channel instead of the one selected automatically by using the same buttons.
Attaching Snapshots
The Send Email action allows you to attach a snapshot from one channel and deliver it together with the email to the recipient. The snapshot can be taken either from the main stream or from the secondary stream (substream), if available. At the action creation time, you just enable the snapshot from either main or secondary stream, and then you will have an option to specify the source channel when creating the rule that involves such an action.
When creating the Send Email action, you can choose to attach a snapshot by selecting the necessary stream option (main/sub) from the drop-down list. The channel itself is not specified at this step as it is not known beforehand, to which channel this action will be applied in future - this makes the action universal, applicable to any target channel.
The source channel is specified when you attach the Send Email action to an event, i.e., create a rule in the Event & Action Configurator:
if the event in the rule has some channel as a source (e.g., motion, VCA, DI), this channel is set automatically as a snapshot source
for events having sources other than channels (e.g., user buttons, server events), you can specify the source channel by using the Snapshot source button on the panel below the rule map
you can modify the source channel by using the same button, and also disable snapshot attachment by selecting none as the source
Email sending rules can accept any extra modifiers just like any other rules – delay Timer, conditions and schedules, each of them once.
Adding Target Channels to Rules
There are other actions, apart from Send Email with a Snapshot, that are related to channels and may use them as action targets. These are, namely, Create Bookmark and Send Event to Client.
The Create Bookmark action requires a channel to add the bookmark to. To add bookmarks to multiple channels simultaneously, add several actions of the Create Bookmark type and specify different target channels for each.
The Send Event to Client action only needs a target channel to be specified in case the action has the Display event in notification panel option enabled: as a result, the pre-defined message will appear in the notification area of the specified channel (overlay area in live view, the same place where the stream errors appear - see Macula Monitor user manual for more information). Similarly to bookmarks, you can add more than one action of the same type and add different channels as targets in order to display the message in the notification areas of these channels.
Examples
Here are a few examples of the Event & Action Configurator usage. You will find more examples in each of the related topics.
Export Snapshots From All Channels
Task: upon a user button click, save a snapshot from every existing channel on one server.
Preliminary setup:
create a user button with your desired name
create an action: export snapshot to a specified location
Export snapshot to a specified location using text macros for the file name
Note that the action itself does not contain any fields for the channel to serve as the snapshot source. Thus, the action is universal and can be used repeatedly for many rules; the target channel for the snapshot is then to be specified for each rule in the E&A Configurator.
Use the text macros in the file name and/or path: this is necessary for each snapshot to have a unique name. Otherwise, the snapshots in the same directory will overwrite each other. {ACTION_PARAMETER_TITLE} here is the best option here to differentiate between channels because the originating event (user button clicked) and the action target (server) are the same for all rules. For example, here are two different applications for the same macros:
K:\Snapshot\{ACTION_PARAMETER_TITLE}_{EVENT_TIME}.jpg - each file name contains channel name (snapshot source specified at the rule creation step) and a timestamp
K:\Snapshot\{ACTION_PARAMETER_TITLE\{EVENT_TIME}.jpg - directories with channel names are created, and all snapshots from the same source are put into the same folder and have timestamps as their names
Rules:
add the user button click event once, click it so that it is selected (highlighted green)
add the export snapshot action multiple times for all channels using + button (the rule will be copied automatically)
define the snapshot source (=channel) for each rule using the button in the bottom
As a result, when the user button is clicked in the Macula Monitor or in the Macula Mobile application, snapshots from all available (those having video) channels will be saved into the specified location.
Email Notification on Video Loss
Task: send an email notification when the video stream from certain channel(s) is not available for more than five minutes.
Preliminary setup:
in the channel settings, set the video loss timeout to 300s (five minutes) for each target channel (select multiple channels and use the Bulk Edit button on the upper panel to modify several channels at once)
configure a mail server with your desired parameters
create an action: send email to the responsible person using the pre-configured SMTP server
Rules:
the Video lost event from each of the target devices triggers the Send email action
Note that you do not need to create the Video lost event as it is already exists by default for each channel.
Pop Up Channel on Video Analytics Event
Let's see how to pop up video channels if built-in video analytics (VA) trigger a line cross event. Such rules let you efficiently load operators' monitors, so that they only see relevant video instead of tons of static channels.
Task: if video analytics on Channel X detect a person crossing a line, pop up Channel A on all operators' screens.
Preliminary setup:
Channel A: enable VA, add a crossing line, add a line event of the Crossed type with the Person class enabled
Rule for Channel A:
VCA rule with the Line crossed parameter triggers the Pop up on screen action
If you want to limit the popup to a specific video wall display, simply create an additional action of the Popup object type. In the action properties, you will be able to specify the video wall display and even viewport index as the channel destination.
Global Handling of Recording Errors
This example will cover a use case with a global event, showing how multiple servers within a single system can be involved in a more sophisticated chain of events and actions.
Task: if there are recording errors on Server A, log this event locally and also add corresponding entry to Windows Application log on the central server. The Recording error event is there by default and so there is no need to create it.
Preliminary setup:
Server A: Write to A Application log action
Central Server: Write to CS Application log action
Global event Recording Error on Server A
Rules for Server A:
Recording error event triggers local Write to A Application log action
Recording error event triggers Send global event action for the Recording Error on Server A event
Central Server rules:
Recording Error on Server A global event triggers its own Write to CS Application log action
Server A generates a global alert and sends it to all servers in the system.
The Central Server is subscribed to the global alert and therefore reacts with the assigned action.
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