[FEATURE] Option to disable `additions_only` safeguard about 75% deletions

[mhalano]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I have a job that monitors a single field in a table, which is basically a single line. I have additions_only enabled, but since it's just a single line, when goes missing triggers the safeguard about 75%.

Describe the solution you'd like.
I want to just receive the changes for this field. I don't care about deletions, so it would be nice to have a flag like disable_safeguard when we have this small values that can go missing.

Describe alternatives you've considered.
I couldn't think about anything, but maybe a diff with some kind of regex instead of using additions_only.

Additional context.
Add any other context or screenshots about the feature request here.

[mborsetti]

Hey @mhalano,

Thanks for sharing your use case.

If I understand it correctly, you want to be notified if the value goes from , e.g., "1" to "2", but not if it goes from e.g. "1" to blank.

How about when it goes from blank to e.g. "3"?

[mhalano]

Also shouldn't notify if goes from blank to "1" in your example, but should notify too if goes from blank to "3".

[drws]

The safeguard could simply be optional (or the threshold could be configurable).

[mhalano]

I think just being able to disable is enough. This is a good safeguard.

[mborsetti]

Sounds good.

And like the suggestion of having the ability to set the threshold!

[mborsetti]

Implemented in 3.36.

additions_only now also takes a number in the range [0, 1]. See the documentation.

Thanks for opening an issue with the suggestion!

[mhalano]

@mborsetti I don' know if we should reopen this issue or if I should open a bug one.
What is happening is: I'm getting emails when the content is restored, so the email when the conten is deleted is ok, but when the content is restored, I got an email. When I opened this issue I was thinking about just get changes in the content.
I think one way to do this is, when the content is fully deleted, don't add to the database, so the old content, pre-deletion, still be present, and then the changes in the content can be correctly assessed.
What do you think?

[mborsetti]

@mhalano Thanks for your suggestion.

What's the use case? If it's a website where let's say the content disappears and then reappears at a later date (flaky), then your solution would work, but do you care of never knowing if the content disappears forever (i.e. you're no longer tracking something you thought you'd be tracking)?

[mhalano]

@mborsetti No, I don't care if it disappears forever. I'm monitoring a cell in a table of a website, which is flaky, and my only goal is to check if the value of that changes. I can send you the YAML snippet for the job, if you like.
Maybe a new option, something like ignore_deletion?

[mborsetti]

So that I understand the plumbing, is it the website that returns nothing at times, or is it returning something (different) such that after applying your filtering you end up with nothing?

[mhalano]

It returns nothing sometimes. I don't know whether it's a CDN or other way, but some times it returns nothing, so I would like to ignore this nothing and just consider when there is something.

[mborsetti]

Sounds good. Will queue it up.