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Tasks in PhixFlow perform various jobs, including, running analysis on streams, archiving, and clearing old managed file and performance log records.
Tasks are bundled into task plans and are configured to run in a specific order. Task plans can be requested by users, triggered by actions or schedule to run on a specific date and time.
For tasks that affects streams, you have a choice in how you structure the tasks.
Either each task affects one stream
Create a set of tasks, each one to operate on a single stream. Add the set of tasks to the task plan. In this case PhixFlow will process the tasks, and therefore the streams one by one, in order. It will wait for the previous task to complete, before starting the next.
For example, a task plan contains:
- TaskA for stream-a
- TaskB for stream-b
- TaskC for stream-c.
PhixFlow will process TaskA until it stream-a is finished, then TaskB until stream-b is finished, then TaskC until stream-c is finished.
This is the safest way to set up tasks that affect streams. Always use this method when there are dependencies between streams.
Or one task affects multiple streams
Add multiple streams to a task, then add the task to the task plan. In this case you have no control over the order in which streams will be processed.
For example, a task plan contains a single task. The task affects stream-a, stream-b and stream-c. PhixFlow will process all the streams at the same time.
Only use this method if there is you are sure there are no dependencies between the streams.
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This page is for data modellers, application designers and system administrators. It explains how to create a task plan, which will run one or more tasks.
Overview
When working with data, applications and IT systems, there are routine processes that you need to run. PhixFlow makes it easy for you to set up and manage these processes using task plans. For example:
- application designers or system administrators need to update data in applications
- data modelers need to running analysis on models or specific streams
- administrators need to clear old information the PhixFlow system, by archiving old data in:
- stream sets
- processing logs
- performance statistics.
Use the task plan properties tab to configure the task plan by setting the options and adding Tasks.
You can run a task plan:
- manually, using the toolbar button
Insert excerpt _taskplan_start _taskplan_start nopanel true - automatically at a scheduled date and time, using the Scheduled check box and related Schedule section
- by linking it to an application action. When the user clicks a button or item in the application, the task plan runs.
When a task plan runs, the listed tasks are run in the configured order.
You can optionally set up a list of users who will receive an email about the outcome of running the task plan.
See Also
Insert excerpt _standard_settings _standard_settings nopanel true
Basic Settings
| Field | Description | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | The name of the task plan. | ||||||||||||||||||
| EnabledWhen |
| Scheduled | If ticked, an extra section will appear. This allows a regular schedule to be set up for the task plan. and it can be run.
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| Scheduled |
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| Suspend on Failure | If ticked, the Suspended flag will be set to true if any error messages are generated by the task plan during execution. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Suspended | If the field Suspend on Failure is ticked, this box will be ticked by the system if any error messages are generated when the task plan is executed. This indicates that there is a problem which should be fixed before the Task Plan is run again. The next time the task plan runs, if this flag is still ticked, it will simply generate a one line error message in the log file stating that it cannot run as it has been suspended. To un-suspend the task plan, untick the field. |
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A list of tasks in the task plan; see Task. To To add a task, click 
and select the type of task you want to add; see Types of Task.
Schedule
This section only appears if the Scheduled box in Basic Settings is ticked.Each of these elements can be specified with an explicit value (e.g 6), a range (e.g 9-12), a repeating group (e.g. 5/10 - is displayed when Basic Settings → Scheduled is ticked. Specify the day and time at which the task plan runs. In the fields, you can enter:
- an explicit value, for example, 6
- a range, for example, 9-12
- a repeating group, for example, 5/10. This is equivalent to 5,15,25,35,...
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- a list of single values, ranges
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- or repeating groups. For example, 1,3-5,10,20/5.
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- a wild card
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- *
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- , meaning all values
You cannot use a wild card in the Seconds field.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Seconds | Seconds element of the scheduled date/time, e.g. 0-59. |
| Minutes | Minutes element of the scheduled date/time e.g. 0-59. |
| Hours | Hours element of the scheduled date/time, e.g. 0-23. |
| Day of Month | Day of Month element of the scheduled date/time, e.g. 1-31. Day of Month can be specified relative to the end of the month e.g. 'L', the last day of the month, or 'L-2', two days before the last day of the month. A day of month followed by a 'W' means the nearest week-day to that day in the same month e.g. '15W' means if the 15th falls on a Saturday the TaskPlan task plan will run on the preceding Friday, and if it falls on a Sunday it will be moved to the following Monday, '1W' means the first week-day of the month, and 'LW' means the last week-day in the month. Day of Week and Day of Month are mutually exclusive. One must be set to '?' (meaning no value specified), and the other defines the days that this Task Plan runs on. |
| Month | Month element of the scheduled date/time, e.g. 1-12 Month can also be specified as short names e.g. JAN,OCT-DEC |
| Day of Week | Day of week element of the scheduled date/time, e.g. 1-7. The week starts on Sunday. So Sunday = 1, Monday = 2, etc. Day of Week can also be specified as short names e.g. MON,WED-FRI A day of week name or number followed by an 'L' means the last day of week in the month e.g. 'FRIL' means the last Friday, '2L' means the last Monday. A day of week name or number followed by a hash ('#') and a number means the Nth day of week in the month e.g. '2#2' means the 2nd Monday in the month, 'FRI#5' means the 5th Friday in the month - if there is no 5th Friday in the month, that is equivalent to specifying no day of week. If the '#' character is used, there can only be one expression in the day-of-week field, so "3#1,6#3" is not valid, since there are two expressions. Day of Week and Day of Month are mutually exclusive. One must be set to '?' (meaning no value specified), and the other defines the days that this Task Plan runs on |
| Year | Year element of the scheduled date/time, e.g. 1970-2099. |
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You can set up an automated email to be sent with the results of a task plan run.
Emails are generated in an outbound queue and actually sent by a separate email demon process. If it is not possible to send emails immediately, e.g. because the email server is down, the email demon process will try to re-send periodically until either it succeeds or until a timeout period has passed.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Email From | The Email Address the generated email will appear from. |
| Subject Expression | Allows the user to build a PhixFlow Expression which will be used to create the Email Subject. The internal variables _errors, _warnings, _messages, _suspended and _taskPlan can be used in the Subject Expression. |
| Message Expression | Allows the user to build a PhixFlow Expression which will be used to create the message body of the email. The internal variables _errors, _warnings, _messages, _suspended and _taskPlan can be used in the Message Expression. |
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