Use field in Data Alert Condition without having to add it as Table Field in Report

Feature Suggestions
1

When setting up a Data Alert for a Report, I would like to be able to use a field as an Alert Condition without having to add it as a Table Field in the report. In my case I ended up having to add three fields as Table Fields just so I could use them as alert conditions, which cluttered up my Report considerably.

2

Hi @pribbens Nice to e-meet you!

To better understand your use case, could you provide an example of a scenario where you need to use a field (for alert conditions) that isn’t included in the report? This will help us assess the feasibility of implementing this feature to meet your needs. :smiley:

3

Hi Heidi!

Yeah in my case there are three fields I’m using for Alert Conditions that I don’t need to include in my report.

Some context: the report is for showing retroactive changes to monthly totals. We’ve defined a “retroactive change” as when the monthly total for a previously completed month reported as of day x is significantly different from the monthly total reported as of day x-1 (we’re essentially taking daily snapshots of our data to keep track of changes over time. It’s possible for there to be late-arriving backfills of data that cause the monthly totals for past months to change retroactively).

More specifically we use two fields to define a retroactive change:

  1. Is First Valid As Of Day = false.
    i.e. this shouldn’t be the first day we’re reporting this monthly total, b/c it will always look like there was a retroactive change b/c the value went from 0 to a non-zero value.
  2. Is Significant Delta From Previous Valid As Of Day = true.
    This is a Business Calculation that we defined that is true if field A > 0.0001 OR field B > 0. Fields A and B are fields where we’ve calculated the delta between day x and day x-1.

So if a record meets those two criteria it will show up in our Retroactive Changes report.

And we want a data alert for the report to be sent out if those first two criteria are met AND it’s the 6th or later day in the month (we expect there to be some retroactive changes in the first few days after a month ends, and don’t want to alert on those):
3. Valid As of Day Of Month > 5

So all three of those fields are useful for defining what data shows up in the report and when an alert is sent, but we don’t actually need those to be columns that show up in the report itself. They don’t provide any value to the end users and they clutter up the report table.

Hopefully that makes some sense.

Thanks for your help,
Phil

4

Hi @pribbens

Thank you for providing additional context regarding your case. We really appreciate it :smile:
Although we cannot support this feature at the moment, we’ll add your request to our backlog and notify you of any updates regarding it.

For a workaround, would it be possible for you to create a custom boolean field? The field should return True when the following conditions are met:

  • “Is First Valid As Of Day” is false
  • “Is Significant Delta From Previous Valid As Of Day” is true
  • “Valid As of Day Of Month” is greater than 5

Otherwise, the field should return False. This would allow you to use a single field as the alert condition instead of adding three fields as table fields in the report.

Would you mind checking if it can solve your case?