Alerts and Digests

An alert watches one number from a Panel app’s data and tells you the moment it crosses a limit. A digest sends a short summary of up to 10 numbers every day or every week. Both are set up from the app in Panel Studio, and both are yours: you see and change only your own.

Open Alerts and Digests

1. In My Panel Apps or a project’s Home board, choose Open in Studio on the app.
2. Choose Alerts & Digests.

The window has an Alerts tab and a Digests tab. The app must be assigned to a project, and its tables are the ones in that project.

Define a Number to Watch

Alerts and digests measure a KPI that you build from a table in the app’s project:

Field	What it sets
Table	The table to read. It must be built.
Measure column	The column to total or count.
Function	sum, avg, min, max, count or count_distinct.
Add filter	Optional conditions that narrow the rows, each a column, a comparison and a value. For is in, separate values with commas. Remove filter takes one out.

The number is always calculated with your own access to the table, including row-level security. You never see, or send, a figure for rows you can’t read.

Create an Alert

1. On the Alerts tab, choose New.
2. Enter a Name.
3. Build the KPI.
4. Under Alert when the KPI is, pick >, >=, < or <= and enter a Threshold.
5. Choose how to be told in Send by (see Channels).
6. Leave Enabled ticked and choose Save.

PlaidCloud checks every enabled alert once an hour. An alert fires once each time the number crosses the threshold, then stays quiet until the number is back on the safe side and crosses again. The list shows when each alert last fired, and (off) after the name of one that is turned off.

You can have up to 20 of your own alerts on one app.

Create a Digest

1. On the Digests tab, choose New.
2. Enter a Name.
3. Choose Add KPI, give it a KPI label, and build the number. Repeat for up to 10 KPIs. Remove KPI takes one out.
4. Next to Send, pick Every day or Every week.
5. Choose how to send it in Send by and choose Save.

A digest goes out once per day or per week, in the first hourly check after the period starts, with the period in UTC. The list shows when each digest last sent. A KPI your access to the table leaves with no rows shows as no data, never as an unfiltered figure.

You can have up to 10 of your own digests on one app and 20 in total across apps.

Channels

Send by	Where it goes
Push notification	The PlaidCloud mobile app on your devices. Alerts only.
Email	The email address on your account.
Slack	A Slack channel, through a Slack connection.
Microsoft Teams	A Teams channel, through a Microsoft Teams connection.

For Slack and Microsoft Teams, pick the Connection to post through. A workspace administrator creates the connection, and you must have been given access to it. The connection’s address must start with https.

What a Slack or Teams Card Shows

A card shows the figures only when your own access to the table is unrestricted, meaning no row-level security limits the rows you can read. If your access is limited to some rows, the card says new values are ready and links to the app, where each reader sees only the rows their own access allows. Every card carries a link to the app. A channel’s members are managed outside PlaidCloud, which is why a restricted owner’s numbers don’t go to one.

When Delivery Fails

An alert or digest that can’t be delivered 24 hours in a row, for example because its Slack connection was removed, is turned off. The list shows it as (off) and the form says how many deliveries failed. Fix the channel, tick Enabled and choose Save to turn it back on.

Edit or Delete

Choose an item in the list to change it and Save. Choose Delete to remove it. If you switch items with unsaved changes, PlaidCloud asks before discarding them.

Next Steps

• Panel Studio — where you reach Alerts & Digests.
• The Panel App Kit — build the app the alerts watch.