Designing and Managing Behavior Models - Using Alarms - Defining Transitions - Defining a Transition -
Defining Transitions      Changing the Size of Transition Icons

Defining a Transition

When you add a transition to a state diagram, you must supply three pieces of information: an origin state, a trigger name, and a destination state. Both of the states must already have been created in the state diagram, and the trigger must already exist as well.

 
  To create a new transition:

1. Select the Add Transition button at the top of the Alarm Definition window.

   The Transition Definition dialog is displayed.

   

2. Select an origin state from the From drop-down list.

   This list contains the names of all the states currently defined in the state diagram, including Ground. If an alarm is in the origin state when the appropriate trigger arrives, it may transition to the destination state.

3. Select a trigger from the Trigger drop-down list.

   This list contains the names of all the triggers defined in the NerveCenter database. Only a trigger with the name you specify here will be able to cause this transition.

4. Select a destination state from the To drop-down list.
5. Select the OK button.

A transition is drawn between the source and destination states. This transition consists of a line connecting the source and destination states with arrows pointing in the direction of the destination state, and a rectangular icon on the line labeled with the trigger name. You can drag the rectangular icon, and the line will move with it.

Associating an Action with a Transition

A transition may or may not have alarm actions associated with it. If it has one or more actions associated with it, these actions are performed each time the transition occurs.

You can add actions to an existing transition, or adding the actions can be part of the initial definition of the transition.

 
  To add an action to a transition:

1. If you're in the process of creating a new transition, the Transition Definition dialog should already be open. If you want to add an action to an existing transition, double -click the transition's icon. The Transition Definition dialog appears.

   

2. Select the New Action button.

   NerveCenter displays a pop-up menu that lists all the actions supported on your platform. The complete list of actions is:

   • Action Router
   • Alarm Counter
   • Beep
   • Clear Trigger
   • Command
   • Delete Node
   • EventLog
   • Fire Trigger
   • Inform
   • Inform OpC
   • Inform Platform
   • Log to Database
   • Log to File
   • Microsoft Mail
   • Notes
   • Paging
   • Perl Subroutine
   • Send Trap
   • Set Attribute
   • SMTP Mail
   • SNMP Set

     These actions are described in Chapter 12, Alarm Actions.

3. Select an action from the pop-up menu.

   If you select the Action Router, Delete Node, or Notes action, the action is added immediately to the Actions list in the Transition Definition window. However, because most actions require you to supply parameters, NerveCenter generally displays an action dialog at this point. The dialog varies from action to action.

4. Fill in the fields in the action dialog.

   This step is very dependent on the action you've selected. For details on how to complete this step, see the appropriate section in Chapter 12, Alarm Actions

5. Repeat step 2 through step 4 for any additional actions you want to add to the transition.
6. Select the OK button in the Transition Definition window.