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6 Events

An event in TDengine IDMP is a discrete operational occurrence with a defined start time, end time, and duration — the digital record that something happened. A pump tripped, a temperature exceeded its limit, a batch phase completed, a maintenance window began. This concept is equivalent to event frames in AVEVA PI System, one of the most powerful ideas in industrial data management.

Raw sensor streams provide a measurement value at a given moment; events record what was happening operationally — and for how long. Instead of searching through millions of data points to find when a compressor ran in surge, querying the structured event record that already captured it is sufficient.

Events in the AI Era​

Events matter even more as AI becomes central to industrial operations. AI and machine learning systems work best when data is structured and contextualized — and that is exactly the capability that events provide. Compared to feeding a model millions of raw sensor readings, providing structured records is far more effective: "Compressor Surge, Start: 10:23:15, Duration: 12 seconds, Severity: High." That context is what turns signal data into something a model can reason about.

Events directly enable the industrial AI use cases that matter most: training predictive maintenance models, powering anomaly detection, performing root cause analysis, and driving AI agents that can reason about what is happening in a plant. All of these require not just measurement values, but an understanding of the operational conditions those values represented — and for how long. Events are the bridge between continuous time-series data and the operational intelligence that AI systems need to be useful.

Event Lifecycle​

Events in TDengine IDMP are always generated automatically by analysis rules associated with an element, following a standardized lifecycle from template definition to event creation and notification delivery.

Event Template (defined in Libraries)
        ↓
Analysis (configured on an element, references the template)
        ↓
Event (generated automatically when the analysis condition is met)
        ↓
Notification (optionally sent to configured contact points)

Every event must be based on an event template, which defines the naming pattern, severity level, categories, custom attribute schema, and acknowledgment requirements. Event templates are managed under Libraries → Event Template.

Standard Event Fields​

Every event carries the following standard fields, which describe the event's time range, associated objects, severity, and current processing status.

FieldDescription
NameDisplay name generated from the naming pattern in the event template
Start TimeWhen the event began
End TimeWhen the event ended (blank if still active)
TemplateThe event template this event was created from
Severity LevelSeverity category (Critical, Major, Minor, Warning, Normal)
Operating ReasonThe operational reason that triggered this event, written by the analysis when the event is generated
Current ValueThe value of the key measurement at the event's start time
Reason CodeOptional code identifying the cause
CategoriesTags for filtering and grouping
DescriptionFree-text description
Associated ElementThe element that generated this event
Associated AnalysisThe analysis rule that triggered this event
Parent EventFor a child event, the parent event it belongs to; blank for ordinary events
StatusAcknowledgment status of the event (Unacknowledged / Acknowledged)
Acknowledged ByThe user who acknowledged the event (blank if unacknowledged)

In addition to these standard fields, an event can carry custom attributes — named values recorded at the time of the event, such as the peak temperature during an exceedance or the batch ID at the time of a fault. Custom attributes are defined in the event template.

What's Covered in This Chapter​

This chapter covers the complete event management workflow, from template definition to event browsing, detail viewing, alert notifications, acknowledgment, and analysis chart.

  • Event Templates — Creating and managing event templates in Libraries
  • Child Events — Modeling "one situation, multiple severities" with parent and child events
  • Browsing Events — The global events view, element-level events, and filtering
  • Event Detail — General information plus five bottom tabs: Attributes, Associated Attributes, Annotations, Notification Record, and Child Events
  • Alerts and Notifications — Contact points, notification rules, and notification behavior
  • Acknowledgment — Acknowledging events and the acknowledgment workflow
  • Analysis Chart — Analyzing events with the analysis chart
  • Root Cause Analysis — Root cause analysis based on events

📄️ Child Events

The same type of anomaly often occurs in multiple degrees on the plant floor — a "voltage exceedance" of 220 V is a yellow card, 240 V is a red card; a "temperature anomaly" that ramps up slowly demands a very different response than one that spikes instantly. TDengine IDMP supports modeling "one situation, multiple severities" through Child Events: within a single time window, the system evaluates the current severity by priority and records every change in severity as an independent event. When two or more child events accumulate in the window, a parent event is automatically created as the skeleton that spans the whole episode.