Trigger Overview

Triggers are actions that occur based on customizable conditions such as date/time patterns, data tag values, or database changes. Many parts of GENESIS can listen for triggers to take specific actions.

Trigger Types

The following table lists the types of triggers that are available.

Trigger Type	Description
Alarm trigger	Gets activated when an alarm occurs.
Database trigger	Gets activated when database changes occur.
Data trigger	Gets activated when a data tag changes.
Date/time trigger	Gets activated when a specific date/time or pattern occurs.
File trigger	Gets activated based on file or folder changes that occur in Windows.
NT event trigger	Gets activated when a Windows system event occurs.
Event groups	Occurs when any trigger in the group gets activated.
Event switches	Occurs when a specific member of the group gets activated. An index allows you to change which specific member.

Many options are available for each trigger type, allowing you to customize the trigger behavior.

Related values can be configured for each trigger. These may be static or tag values that should be associated with the trigger, up to a limit of 20 related values. For example, you may need to read the values of several tags at the moment when the trigger occurs, and then use those values in a bridging activity to write those values to a database.

Trigger Usage

Some of the functions in GENESIS that use triggers to invoke further actions include:

• Refreshing a database data source to get the latest values.
• Executing a report.
• Invoking a bridging activity.
• Merging data into the historian.
• Sending a notification over email or SMS.

To learn how to set up a date/time trigger to refresh a database source, see Creating a Date/Time Trigger for a Database.