Context Criteria and Status Criteria determine whether a tool is applicable to the selected target. If an operator selects an instance, then the target is an instance. If an operator selects a notification, the target can be either the notification or the instance where the notification occurred, as identified by the ElementClass and ElementInstance attributes.

Context Criteria determine whether a tool is displayed in the menu when a target is selected. The console checks the Context Criteria when the notification is received and does not re-check until the notification is archived and re-notified. Hence, you must apply context checking to attributes whose values do not change:

  • Category

  • ClassDisplayName

  • ClassName

  • ElementClassName

  • ElementName

  • EventDisplayName

  • EventName

  • EventType

  • InstanceDisplayName

  • InstanceName

    Although you can apply context checking to other attributes, the results are based on the initial value of the attribute.

    Status Criteria determines whether a tool is active. The name of a disabled tool is dimmed in the menu and cannot be invoked. You should apply Status Criteria to attributes whose value might change, including:

  • Acknowledged

  • Active

  • Certainty

  • ClearOnAcknowledge

  • EventState

  • EventText

  • Impact

  • InMaintenance

  • IsProblem

  • IsRoot

  • OccurrenceCount

  • Owner

  • Priority

  • Severity

  • SourceDomainName

  • SourceEventType

  • TroubleTicketID

    The tool target determines what attributes are passed to the tool to be matched against the Context Criteria. For example:

  • When the target is an element, you can match against the attributes specified in GUID-505634EC-9458-4536-9644-14DE746F63D8.html#GUID-505634EC-9458-4536-9644-14DE746F63D8___SA_CONFIG_TOOLS_78520.

  • When the target is a notification, the matching criteria determine which attributes are passed to the Context Criteria.

    Results differ depending on the matching criteria:

  • If the matching criteria specify a notification attribute, then the attributes of a notification, from GUID-505634EC-9458-4536-9644-14DE746F63D8.html#GUID-505634EC-9458-4536-9644-14DE746F63D8___SA_CONFIG_TOOLS_70374, are passed.

  • If the matching criteria specify an element, then the attributes of an element are passed.