You must complete the following tasks in the order listed to define a response processing alert:

1. Define an alert

2. Create an alert message action that solicits a response

3. Create response actions

4. Define an action set

5. Create a response set

6. Define possible responses

7. Attach the response set to the alert message action

   To define a response processing alert:

1. Navigate to the Alerts window.

2. Create either an event or a periodic alert. See: Overview of Alerts.

   Suggestion: Include in your alert Select statement all the outputs you need to create the alert message action that solicits a response. Also make sure you include all the outputs you need to create the actions to the valid and invalid responses you plan to define.

   Note: You do not have to save history to use response processing, but you can save history for your response processing alerts. See: Response Processing History.

3. Save your work.

   To create a message action that solicits a response:

1. Choose Actions in the Alerts window.

2. Define a message action in the Actions and Action Details windows that solicits a response from the recipient. Your message can be either a summary or detail level action. See: Creating Alert Actions.

3. Format the message however you like, and include the outputs that represent the exceptions you want. See: Formatting Summary Message Actions.

   When Oracle Alert sends out your message, it automatically appends two pieces of text:

   • Response Text-tells the recipient exactly how to reply to the alert message. This text originates from the Message Elements tabbed region of the Oracle Alert Options form. Your Oracle Alert installation is supplied with the following default text, which you can customize to your needs:

     Your response to this mail note will be processed
     electronically.  For successful processing, you must:
     - Include this note in your reply by using your mail 
     system's Reply With Original feature.
     - Make your actual response EXACTLY like ONE of the 
     following; however, you should replace the question mark 
     (?) with the value you want to specify.
     Choose one of the following responses:
     

   • Valid Response Text-lists the possible responses that the recipient must reply with. You define these possible responses in the Valid Responses block of the Response Sets window, which we describe later in this essay. Oracle Alert appends this Valid Response Text to your message, so the recipient knows the exact text he or she must respond with.

     To summarize, the alert message that solicits a response contains three sections of text. In order of appearance in the message, they are:

   • Text you create in the Action Details block located in the Actions window of the Alerts form that reports the exceptions found, and asks for a response

   • Response text that originates from the Oracle Alert Options form that instructs the recipient how to reply to the message

   • Valid response text of possible valid responses, one of which the recipient must include in his or her response

4. Save your work.

   To create the response actions:

1. Display the Actions window of the Alerts form.

2. Define the response actions in this window. Response actions are the actions you want Oracle Alert to take when it receives a reply to the alert message action you created in the previous task. You define your response actions before defining your responses. Create as many response actions as you need. See: Creating Alert Actions.

   Note: You can define response actions only as detail level actions.

3. In any of the response actions you define, you can use both outputs and response variables in the action details. Response variables are variables whose values are assigned by the respondent.

   Identify your response variables with an ampersand before the name, for example, &VARIABLE_NAME. Oracle Alert reads the value for a response variable from the message response and reads the value of an alert output from the original alert message, then substitutes the values when executing the action. If the response message does not include the response variable, Oracle Alert uses the default value from your response variable definition.

   Suggestion: You can create actions for Oracle Alert to take when it receives a response it does not recognize, or when it does not receive a response at all. For example, define a message action that tells the recipient that Oracle Alert did not understand their response.

4. Save your work.

   To define an action set for a response processing alert:

1. Choose Action Sets in the Alerts window.

2. Define an enabled action set that contains the alert message action that you want to use to solicit a response. See: Creating an Action Set for an Alert.

3. Save your work.

   To create a response set for a response processing alert:

1. Choose Response Sets in the Alerts window.

   Use the Response Sets window to define the set of valid, invalid, and no response responses your alert message might receive, and tell Oracle Alert which response action it should perform when it receives one of those responses.

2. Enter a response set name (up to 30 characters) and description (up to 240 characters). See: Oracle Alert Naming Conventions.

3. Check Enabled to enable your response set. If you uncheck Enabled, you cannot attach this response set to a message action to solicit responses. If the response set is already attached to a message action, you can uncheck Enabled to prevent Oracle Alert from processing any new responses for that alert.

4. Enter a current or future date in the End Date field to disable your response set by a certain date.

5. Save your work.

6. Choose Response Variables in the Response Sets window to define the response variables that you used in the response actions that you created earlier.

7. Enter a name for the response variable (up to 30 characters), omitting the ampersand. Enter a description for your response variable (up to 240 characters).

   Attention: Response variables and outputs cannot have the same names. When you define a response variable, Oracle Alert verifies that the name you assign does not conflict with any defined output names. Oracle Alert displays an error message if your response variable name conflicts with an output name.

8. Specify the data type of the response variable: Character, Number, or Date, in the Type field. Oracle Alert uses the data type to validate default values you enter in the Default field and responses from message recipients.

9. Enter the maximum number of characters you want to display for this response variable in the Max Length field. If the response variable value contains more characters than the maximum length you specify, Oracle Alert:

   • Truncates character and date data

   • Displays a row of pound signs (######) for numeric data

10. Enter a default value to a response variable in case a respondent does not specify a value for the response variable.

11. Save your work.

   To define the possible responses to a message action:

1. Choose Valid in the Response Sets window to define your valid responses. A valid response is a response that you expect from an alert message recipient, and one that initiates the alert actions you specify. You can define any number of valid responses as you may have several possible courses of action you allow the user to take.

2. Enter a name for your valid response (up to 240 characters).

3. In the Text field, enter the actual text that you want the respondent to reply with. This becomes the Valid Response Text that Oracle Alert appends to the original alert message.

   If you are defining several valid responses for the same alert, make the first word of each valid response unique. When interpreting an actual response, Oracle Alert uses the first word to identify which valid response it is. In the original alert message, Oracle Alert displays the text of every valid response you define.

   Attention: Your response must not include a blank line, so limit your response to one paragraph. Oracle Alert interprets a blank line as the end of the response.

4. If you want the respondent to specify a particular value for a response variable in her/his response, enter the response variable in the Text field, followed by an equal sign and a question mark between a set of quotation marks (="?").

   Note: Including a response variable in your response text is optional.

   For example, suppose you have an alert that sends a message soliciting a reorder quantity from its recipient. You first specify a numeric response variable called &QUANTITY in the alert SQL Select statement and define the variable in the Response Variable window. Then you specify the text of your 'Reorder' valid response as:

    Reorder QUANTITY="?" 
   

   Oracle Alert appends this text to the bottom of your alert message, and expects a response beginning with the word 'Reorder', and including the characters QUANTITY="n", where n is the amount the recipient wants to order. When Oracle Alert performs any actions that include the response variable &QUANTITY, Oracle Alert substitutes the value of n for the response variable.

   Your valid response can include as many response variables as you need.

5. In the Actions block of the Valid Responses window, you assign one or more of the response actions you defined earlier for each of the valid responses that you define in the Responses block.

6. Enter a number in the Seq field representing the sequence in which you want this action to perform relative to the other actions identified for this response.

7. Choose a response action from the list of predefined actions in the Action field. If you select an action that uses alert outputs or response variables that are not defined for this alert or response set, a warning message appears.

8. Check Enabled to enable the action.

9. Enter a current or future date in the End Date field to disable this action by a certain date.

10. Save your work.

11. You can optionally add invalid response actions to your response set by choosing Invalid from the Response Sets window. An invalid response action can be a message action that tells the respondent their reply was not understood.

12. In the Invalid Response Action window, enter a number in the Seq field representing the sequence in which you want this action to perform relative to the other actions for the invalid response.

13. Choose a response action from the list of predefined actions in the Action field. If you select an action that uses alert outputs or response variables that are not defined for this alert or response set, a warning message appears.

    Note: You can also choose the original alert message action as an Invalid Response Action to resend the original message that asks for a response.

14. Check Enabled to enable the action.

15. Enter a current or future date in the End Date field to disable this action by a certain date.

16. Save your work.

17. You can also optionally choose None from the Response Sets window to add No Response follow-up actions for Oracle Alert to perform if the recipient does not respond at all.

    Note: You must run the No Response Action Processor concurrent program to check for alert messages whose specified response days have passed without receiving a valid response. See: Processing No Response Actions.

18. The No Response Actions window is similar to the Invalid Response Actions window. Follow the same steps to define a no response follow-up action.

   To attach the response set to the alert message action:

1. For Oracle Alert to perform response processing on an alert, you must attach your response set to a message action. Go to the Actions window in the Alerts form.

2. Display the Action Details window for the message action that you want to use to solicit a response.

3. In the Response Set field, enter the name of your response set. Oracle Alert uses this response set to compose the response template that it appends to this message and to process the responses it receives for this message.

   You cannot remove a response set from a message action if there is an outstanding response.

4. In the Response Days field, specify the number of days that you want Oracle Alert to wait before it performs the no response follow-up actions defined in your response set for each outstanding exception.

   For example, suppose you enter 1 in this field. Oracle Alert waits one full day after sending the message for a response from the original message recipient. If no response is received, it performs the no response action the first time the No Response Action Processor runs on the following day. The default value for this field is 7 days. If you leave this field blank, Oracle Alert never performs the no response actions on the outstanding responses.

5. Save your work. Your response processing alert is ready for use.

   To delete a response set:

1. Display the existing response set in the Response Sets window of the Alerts form.

2. Choose Delete Record from the Edit menu.

3. If the response set is attached to a message action, an error message followed by a References window appears.

   You can also choose References from the Tools menu in the Response Sets window at any time to display the References window.

4. The References window shows you which actions reference the current response set.

   You must navigate to the Action Details window and remove the response set from the message action that references the response set before you can delete the response set.

5. Once you delete your response set, save your changes.

   Note: You also cannot delete a response set if it has outstanding responses.