Notification Alerts¶
Overview¶
The AgileData App makes it easy to collect data from different sources, transform the collected data and consume the data via any last mile tool.
While you design, collect, change and consume the data in the AgileData Platform it can be helpful to keep track of what is happening to that data in the AgileData App.
The notification alert feature introduces a way of receiving messages about the actions and events happening in the app.
Notification alerts are created in real-time, allowing for a consistent streaming of information.
A new alert usually pops up if an event or an action such as profiling an uploaded file completes. The alert includes a message about which event or action was completed and whether it was successful or not. If the action wasn’t completed successfully, the notification alert might include an error message.
The notification alert feature allows users to track what’s happening without having to pay attention to any additional screens or menus. All information are conveniently summarized in a log of messages that is accessible by clicking on the bell icon in the top menu of the app.
The log of alerts can be cleared before uploading a new file or carrying out a new action. Besides the bell icon, you can also see the current number of notification alerts in the message log.
Steps¶
1. Upload a new file in the file upload screen¶
To start receiving notification alerts,yuo need to perform an action. You could upload a new file, collect some data or conduct another action in the AgileData App.
For this guide, we’re going to upload a new CSV file with data about customer churn, to show how the Notification Alerts feature works.
Click on the “Collect” menu and select the “Upload Files” option to upload a new file from your local machine.
You can upload files in the CSV (Comma-Separated Values) file format (.csv), the Excel spreadsheet format (.xls) or in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation). There are further ways to collect data that are not covered in this guide such as connecting to third-party apps.
After you uploaded the file, a success message will pop up in the sidebar. Click on “Go to Catalog” to switch to the catalog view and start receiving notifications about how the file is processed.
2. Receive notification alerts about uploaded file¶
In the header of the AgileData App, you can see new notification alerts by clicking on the bell icon in the top menu.
Besides the icon, a number shows the current amount of notification alerts on the notification list. New notification alerts are automagically added to the list and the number besides the bell icon is incremented for each new alert.
A file upload is indicated by a new notification alert of the type File Upload. The message shows the file name and who uploaded the file. A second alert shows that the file was successfully collected into the AgileData Platform.
By viewing these alerts you can keep track of the file upload process.
Shortly after the successful file upload you will be notified via two further alerts of the type Tile Loaded. These inform you that the data from the file was successfully collected into a Landing Tile and then pushed into a History Tile. You can see the tiles in question also directly in the Catalog.
The last alert informs you that the data in the tiles was successfully profiled. This means that a profile for the data was created in the AgileData App and you’re ready to explore the data within the History Tile or conduct other actions with it.
3. Auto-generate rules and create a Consume Tile¶
Let’s continue working with this data to shpw some of the other notification alerts that are available.
Start by auto-generate rules and creating a Consume Tile. Click on the three dots in the top right corner of the History Tile and select “Autogenerate Rules” in the pop-up menu.
You will receive a request for confirmation message from ADI. Click on “Generate Rules” to automatically generate rules for the data.
Another confirmation by ADI informs you about the completed action which kicks off the rule-generation process and will provide you with further notification alerts about what’s happening. Go back to the Catalog and check the bell icon to see them.
1. Receive notifications about generated rules and tiles¶
The first alert you receive informs you that the autogenerating rules process has started. The message also includes for which tile and which file name the rules are generated.
The next two alerts show that a Concept Rule and a Detail Rule were created. If you want to see more information on the created rules click on the “Rules” menu and switch to the rule overview screen.
The three last alerts inform you that three new tiles were created, a Detail Tile, a Concept Tile and a Consume Tile. The Consume Tile contains the completely processed data and can for example be used to create dashboards with Looker Studio or explore the data within the AgileData App.
If during this process any error occurs you will also receive a notification alert about this in the Notification list.
Optional Steps¶
1. Check data map for uploaded file and created tiles¶
If you want to get a better overview of which rules and tiles were created after the file upload, you can go to the Data Map screen by clicking on the “Rules” menu and selecting the “Data Map” option.
The Data Map screen shows each uploaded file as a dot on the left side. Lines connect the dots to further dots in the middle and on the right side representing Concept Tiles or Detail Tiles and Consume Tiles which were created out of the collected data from the files.
By clicking on any of the dots you can open a detail menu. Click on “View Lineage” to see how the uploaded file is connected to any created rules or Consume Tiles. For our example, we can see that the Telecom Customer Churn data is connected to a Detail Tile and a Concept Tile in the middle as well as a Consume Tile on the right, confirming the information that was shown in the notification alerts.
Use Cases¶
1. Understand what’s happening after collecting data¶
As a data analyst or consultant, it can be useful to understand how the data is processed and profiled after its collection from uploaded files or other sources. The notification alert feature makes it easy to follow what’s happening in the AgileData Platform as it happens.
After a file upload, you can see immediately what kind of new rules and tiles are created and whether the data is profiled successfully. This enables you to get a quick overview of what’s happening with your data and lets you gain an understanding of which further steps you might want to take to process the data in the AgileData App.
2. Quickly catch errors or issues during file upload¶
The notification alert feature is also very useful for catching errors or other issues during the uploading and processing of files on the fly. Processing collected data does not always go smoothly, especially if multiple files are uploaded at once or if the data that was collected has data quality issues.
By receiving error messages in the notification alerts data analysts can notice immediately if something goes wrong after the upload and fix any bugs or errors quickly. This helps to prevent corrupted files or data from entering the system and causing issues later on that are harder to resolve.