Creating an automation

The New tab creates an automation in three steps: choose the item, choose what the automation does, and fill in its settings. You do not need to know the platform's automation format: the platform lists everything it can do for the item, written as sentences, and you pick one.

Northgate's risk team wants the TTF forward curve as a CSV file by email every time the market data team saves it. Priya sets this up.

Open Operations, Automations, then select the New tab (or New automation at the top of any tab).

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1. Choose the item

Field	Example	Notes
Service	Data (curves, timeseries, event lists)	What kind of item triggers the automation: data, master data, reports, processes, scripts or groups
Source	Private (your company)	Only for services with a source. Public for OpenDataDSL's public items (ids starting with #), Common for shared dataset data such as ICE.NDEX.TTF:SETTLE_MONTHS
Item id	NORTHGATE.TTF:FWD_CURVE	The id of the item. Type part of it and select Find to search
Any item of this service	not ticked	Tick it for an automation on every item of the service, see Automations for any item

Find searches the ids of the service's items. For data, the part before the colon is the master data record (NORTHGATE.TTF) and the part after it the data on that record (FWD_CURVE), so you can type either or both, in any case: northgate.ttf, FWD_CURVE or NORTHGATE.TTF:FWD. The search looks in private, public and common data, and the results show where each item is. Select a result to choose it; the source is set for you.

Priya types NORTHGATE.TTF, selects Find and chooses NORTHGATE.TTF:FWD_CURVE. Choosing a result also selects Show what it can do. If you typed a full id yourself, select Show what it can do.

The page then lists the automations Already set up for this item, each with an Edit button, so you can check whether what you need exists already. The TTF forward curve is already sent to the queue and the ETRM, and builds two compositions.

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2. Choose what it does

What it does lists every target that can be used for the item, each with its description. Select a target to open it and see its automations as sentences, one for each action and variant. Use the filters to narrow them down:

Filter	What it does
Filter	Only targets and sentences containing all the words you type, such as email, queue or failed
When	Only one action, such as is updated

Which actions are offered depends on the service: data can be created, updated and deleted (and pass or fail validation, for curves and timeseries); a process can also be run, be successful, have a warning or fail. See Automation basics for every service and action. A target can also limit the services and actions it works with.

Each target can offer up to four variants of a sentence:

Variant	Sentence	Use it to
Plain	When 'X' is updated, send an email to [to]...	Send the item as it is
transformed	When 'X' is updated, transform the data using [@transformer], then send...	Turn the item into another format first, with a mustache script, such as a CSV file or a message for another system
property change	When property [@propertyName] on 'X' is set to [@propertyValue], ...	Only fire when an update sets a property to a value (* for any change). Only for is updated
property set	When 'anything' is created with property [@propertyName] set to [@propertyValue], ...	Only fire for items created or deleted with a property value
scheduled	On schedule [@schedule], with the latest 'X', send an email to [to]...	Send the item as it is at set times, such as every weekday at 08:00, instead of when something happens to it. See Scheduled automations

A target can switch off the transformed and property variants. The Targets tab shows which variants each target offers.

Priya types attachment in Filter, chooses is updated in When and selects the transformed sentence of Send an email with an attachment.

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3. Fill in the settings

Settings shows the chosen sentence and a field for each setting. Settings in the sentence are required (marked *); the target may have others. The sentence fills in as you type.

Field	Example	Notes
Transformer (a mustache script)	northgate.curve.csv	The mustache script that turns the curve's JSON into the attachment, here a CSV file of the contracts. Start typing to pick from your mustache scripts
to	risk.team@northgate-energy.com	The recipients, separated by ,, ; or a space
subject	${date:dd MMM yyyy} TTF forward curve	The email subject. Date codes are filled in with the curve's ondate
attachmentName	ttf_forward_${date:yyyyMMdd}.csv	The file name of the attachment
Enabled	ticked	Untick it to create the automation switched off

Select Create automation. The message under the button confirms it, with an Open it link to the editor, and the automation is added to Already set up for this item. You are its owner.

tip

Open the new automation and use Run now to send yesterday's curve straight away, to check the email arrives as expected. The test run really sends it.

See Automation targets for the settings of the other targets.

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Scheduled automations

Most automations fire when something happens to an item. A scheduled automation fires at set times instead and sends the item as it is then, for example the latest TTF forward curve by email every weekday at 08:00 UK time, or the positions to the ETRM queue every half hour during the day.

To create one, choose the item as usual, then in When choose runs on a schedule. Each target that can be scheduled offers a scheduled sentence (and a scheduled, transformed one when it can transform the data):

On schedule [@schedule], with the latest 'ICE.NDEX.NLB:TTF_FWD', send an email to [to] with subject [subject]

Choose it and fill in Schedule (cron) with a platform cron: minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week, year and an optional timezone. As you type, the line under the field checks the cron the way the platform does and shows the next three times it will run, in UTC and in local time.

Schedule	When it runs
0 8 * * MON-FRI * EU1	08:00 UK time, Monday to Friday
0/30 7-18 * * MON-FRI * EU1	Every half hour from 07:00 to 18:30 UK time on weekdays
30 17 * * FRI * EU2	17:30 Central European time every Friday
0 20 L * * *	20:00 UTC on the last day of each month

Things to know:

• The timezone is UTC (the default), EU1 (UK time) or EU2 (Central European time). With EU1 and EU2 the automation follows the clock changes.
• Write the days of the week as names (MON-FRI). A number such as 1-5 is accepted by the platform but never matches, so the field says it never runs and the automation cannot be saved.
• Write increments as start and step, 0/15, not */15.
• The item is read with the owner's access each time it runs, and for a curve it is the latest curve. In the automation log the run's reason is Scheduled for and the time it was due.
• Switching the automation off stops the schedule; switching it on starts it again. Deleting it removes the schedule.
• A scheduled automation can be test run like any other.

In the Automations tab, the When column of a scheduled automation shows its cron and the next time it runs. To check that schedules really ran, and why one did not, use the Cron Schedule Diagnostics insight.

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Automations for any item

Tick Any item of this service for an automation that fires for every item of the service, for example to email the reference data team whenever a master data record is created. The sentences then read When 'anything' is created....

• is created automations are always for any item, even when you chose one: an item that does not exist yet cannot be named.
• Combine an any-item automation with a property set variant to only fire for some items, for example records created with property type set to COUNTERPARTY.
• Automations on any item cannot be test run, or scheduled.

caution

An automation on any item can fire very often: an update to any curve sends a message. Use it for rare actions, such as creating or deleting, or with a property condition.

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Next

• Finding and changing automations
• Monitoring automations
• Cron Schedule Diagnostics