General Task Details: Viewing and Editing

To view the general task details of a task in the Backlog or History, right-click the task and choose the Task Details option from the pop-up menu. You can edit the fields on the right side of the General tab for tasks in the Backlog. When you edit task details for a job or process flow in the Backlog, the changes are applied only to that instance of the task. They do not affect the definition of the job or process flow.

General task details determine how and where a task runs, and with what options. When you edit task details for a task in the Backlog, the changes are applied only to that instance of the task. They do not affect the definition of the job or process flow.

Editing General Task Details in the Backlog

To change the parameters associated with a task in the Backlog:

1. Right-click the task and select Task Details from the pop-up menu.

2. Applications Manager displays the Task Details window with the General tab selected (see Figure A).

3. Make the desired changes on the General tab.

You can select the other tabs to view and/or edit additional details for the task. 4. To accept the changes on all tabs, click OK.

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Table A. View-only fields

Field Description

Alias The alias name for the job/process flow. You can specify an alias name when the job or process flow is:

•Added to a process flow as a process flow component. •Requested with the REQUEST JOB condition action. •Requested using a task name suffix.

•Requested with awrun.

Job The name of the job or process flow set in the job/process flow definitions.

User The user or requestor assigned to the task. Users and requestors are the same thing. They are set for a job or process flow in a schedule or requests. Requestors can be set to ‘No Selection’ in schedules, in which case no user will be listed.

Run ID A unique number assigned to a task by Applications Manager at the time the task runs.

Process Flow Name

The parent process flow, if this task is a process flow component. Process Flow

Order No.

The order number of the task in its process flow, if the task is a process flow component.

Request Date The actual time that the task was placed into the Backlog. Corresponds to the so_request_date database field.

Started The actual time that the task was started by the automation engine and processed by the agent. Corresponds to the so_job_started database field.

Ended The actual time the task finished processing on the agent. Corresponds to the so_job_ended database field.

Status The task status. For a description of the task status values, see Appendix B: Task Status Values.

Process ID A unique number assigned to a task by the operating system. Status Detail Details that give additional information on the reason for a task’s

status. Other

Details

When clicked displays a pop-up window with the application status and reference fields. These are used with the PeopleSoft extension and some custom solutions.

Notification, Output Scan, Environment Variables

Lists the notification, output scan, and environment variable objects assigned to the task and where they are assigned.

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Table B. Editable fields.

Field Description Max Run

Time Used to prevent runaway programs. It determines how long the program can run before timing out (DDD:HH:MI). A time of 0 lets the task run forever. If a task times out, it is given a status of TIMEOUT.

Priority Determines when a job is run in relation to other tasks in the same queue. A task with a lower priority number will be run before tasks with higher numbers. The range is 1–99. The default priority is 50.

Tasks submitted with 0 priority will have the status of NO PRIORITY in the Backlog and will not run.

The execution order of tasks waiting to run in a QUEUED status is decided in the following order:

1. Queue priority 2. Job priority 3. Start date and time

Therefore, if two tasks are waiting to run in different queues, and those queues have the same priority, the jobs’ priorities are checked. If queue and job priorities are the same, their start date and times are compared. Login The login the system will use when the task is executed. Logins allow

operators and programmers to run programs that access a database or host without having to know the login and password.

Primary and secondary logins can be specified for jobs. The primary login can be overridden (if one is defined for the job) by:

•Jobs requested with the REQUEST JOB condition action. •Process flow components.

Queue The Applications Manager queue the task will run through. Queues are assigned to jobs and process flows. If a schedule is defined for a job or process flow, and the schedule is assigned to a queue, the schedule’s queue will override the jobs or process flow’s queue. The queue setting for a process flow does not affect its components, unless the Insert components into process flow’s queue automation engine option is turned on.

The process flow’s queue is used for components only when the Insert components into process flow’s queue automation engine option is turned on.

Queues can be specified for requests (as long as the Request Queues user option is assigned).

Agent The agent where the program is stored and run. Start

Date

The time that the task was scheduled to start. Corresponds to the so_start_date database field. Start dates for tasks in the Backlog are determined by either:

•Requests (may be post-dated). •Schedules for jobs and process flows. •The schedule of a component's process flow.

Send To Specifies the output device or set of devices where the output will be sent (for example: EMAIL, ACCOUNTING LASER, ATLANTA LASER).

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Output Option

Used for specifying dynamic output options for the selected output device. This value or list of values is defined by the output interface assigned to the output device.

Output

Function Determines how output is handled. There are three choices:•LOG: Legacy setting, should not be used unless you need to use the Output window rather than the Explorer window.

•PRINT: The output is printed. •STORE: The output is not printed.

Copies Sets the default number of copies to be printed. Restart

once on abort

When selected, Applications Manager will automatically restart a task the first time it aborts, but will not restart it if it aborts a second time.

When this option and the Stay in queue on abort option are both set, and the task aborts, you will see three listings for it in the Explorer window. •The original listing for the Run ID <run_id> in History shows that the

task ran.

•A second listing <run_id>.01 in History shows that it aborted.

•The current listing <run_id>.02 in the Backlog represents the restarted task.

The Restart once on abort setting is specified in each task’s definition, and can be overridden with a condition.

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4.10 Viewing and Editing Task Details