Tasks in PhixFlow perform various jobs, including running analysis, archiving, and clearing old managed file and performance log records. Tasks are bundled into Task Plans, which can be requested by users, scheduled, or triggered by actions.

...

A Task Plan is a collection of Tasks.

Tasks configured in a Task Plan can be:

Tasks are configured to run in a certain order in a Task Plans, and can be set up to run on a scheduled date at a scheduled time.

Panel

bgColor	#e6f0ff
titleBGColor	#99c2ff

A task plan that contains 1 task with 3 streams will process all streams at the same time.

Whereas a task plan with 3 tasks, each containing 1 stream, will run the streams one by one. It will wait for the previous task to complete, before starting the next.

If a mandatory task fails, then the next task should not be started.

...

Insert excerpt

	_Banners
	_Banners
name	taskPlan
nopanel	true

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, to which you add tasks.

Running Task Plans

Excerpt

You can run a task plan:

manually, using the property tab 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, in the action properties → Run Task Plan section; see Table-Action.
When the user clicks something in the application, such as a button or a data row, the task plan runs.

When a task plan runs, its tasks are run in the order they are listed.

You can optionally set up a list of users who will receive an email about the outcome of running the task plan.

Task Plan Properties

Insert excerpt

	_standard_settings
	_standard_settings
nopanel	true

The property tab toolbar includes the

Insert excerpt

	_taskplan_start
	_taskplan_start
nopanel	true

button. Click this to manually run the task plan.

Basic Settings

Field	Description
Name	The name of the task plan.
Enabled

...

If the Scheduled option is ticked, the following details will become available to edit:

...

and it can be run.

Insert excerpt

	_check_box_untick
	_check_box_untick
nopanel	true

to prevent the task plan being run. For example, during maintenance, you may not want the task plan to run at the scheduled time.

Scheduled

Insert excerpt

	_check_box_tick
	_check_box_tick
nopanel	true

to add a Schedule section to the properties, where you can configure the day and time that the task plan will run.

Insert excerpt

	_check_box_untick
	_check_box_untick
nopanel	true

for task plans that you want to run manually.

Suspend on Failure

Insert excerpt

	_check_box_tick
	_check_box_tick
nopanel	true

to set PhixFlow to automatically tick the Suspended checkbox if running the task plan generates an error message. You can find the error messages in the log file; see Server Log Files.

Insert excerpt

	_check_box_untick
	_check_box_untick
nopanel	true

so that a task plan can report errors without preventing the next run.

Suspended

Insert excerpt

	_check_box_tick
	_check_box_tick
nopanel	true

prevents the next run of the task plan. PhixFlow automatically ticks this box if the task plan generated an error message on its previous run. This means the task plan will not run again until you have:

resolved the problem that caused the error message
and unticked the Suspend checkbox.

Insert excerpt

	_check_box_untick
	_check_box_untick
nopanel	true

indicates the task plan can run as no errors were reported in the previous run.

Protect on import

Insert excerpt

	_check_box_untick
	_check_box_untick
nopanel	true

to allow this task plan to be updated or deleted by import from another PhixFlow instance.

Insert excerpt

	_check_box_tick
	_check_box_tick
nopanel	true

to retain the Enabled, Scheduled, Suspend on Failure, Suspended and Schedule settings if this task plan is imported from another PhixFlow instance.

Expand

title	More ...

Insert excerpt

	_protect_import
	_protect_import
nopanel	true

Tasks

The grid contains a list of of tasks in the task plan. To create a task and add it to the list:

Click
Insert excerpt
_new
_new
nopanel true
. PhixFlow displays a list of task types; see Types of Task.
Select a task type.
Complete the task properties; see Task.

To remove tasks, use the toolbar button

Insert excerpt

	_delete
	_delete
nopanel	true

.

Schedule

This section is displayed when Basic Settings → Scheduled is ticked. Specify the day and time on which the task plan runs.

In the fields, you can enter:

an explicit value: 6
a range: 9-12
a repeating group: 5/10
This is equivalent to 5,15,25,35 etc.
a comma-separated list of single values, ranges or repeating groups: 1,3-5,10,20/5
a wild card to mean all values: *
Note: You cannot use a wild card in the Seconds field.

Tip
The Schedule section has fields for Day of Month and Day of Week . These fields are mutually exclusive. Use one to specify a day, and enter a `?` to indicate no value is specified in the other.

Field	Description
Seconds	Enter the seconds part of the scheduled time, for example, 0-59.
Minutes	Enter the minutes part of the scheduled time, for example, 0-59.
Hours	Enter the hours part of the scheduled time, for example, 0-23.
Day of 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 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 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

...

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 - equivalent to 5,15,25,35,...), or a list of single values, ranges, etc. e.g. 1,3-5,10,20/5.

Each of these elements other than Seconds can be set to a wild card ('*'), meaning all values.

Form Icons

The form provides the standard form icons

List: Tasks

Columns

The Task list shows a summary of each Task set up in the Task Plan.

List Icons

The Task list provides some of the standard list icons. The Task list also provides the icon:

...

IconRepository > add16x16.png" data-linked-resource-default-alias="add16x16.png" data-linked-resource-container-id="97734861" data-linked-resource-container-version="1" data-location="HELPTRUNKR > IconRepository > add16x16.png" data-linked-resource-id="97741340" data-linked-resource-version="1" data-linked-resource-type="attachment" data-unresolved-comment-count="0" data-linked-resource-content-type="image/png" data-media-type="file" data-media-id="2b220f20-79c7-4a69-8f27-1792e45a21e2" data-base-url="https://phixflow.atlassian.net/wiki" data-image-width="16" data-image-src="https://phixflow.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/97734861/add16x16.png?version=1&modificationDate=1444149573369&cacheVersion=1&api=v2" data-image-height="16" width="16">

Add a new Task to the Task Plan. This brings up a menu, and the user chooses which type of Task to add:

Form: Send Result By Email

On this tab you can set up an automated email to be sent with the results of a Task Plan run.

...

? to indicate no value is specified here when you use the Day of Week field instead.

Month

Enter the month of the scheduled date. You can enter the months as:

a number or number range. Numbers are 1 to 12. For example:
- 5 runs the task plan in May
- 1-12 runs the task plan every month
its short name, for example, JAN,MAY,JUN,DEC. You can specify a range of months, for example JAN-MAR.

Tip
The month short names must be in block capital letters.

Day of Week

Enter the day of the scheduled date. You can enter:

number to specify the day as number from 1 to 7, where:
- 1 is Sunday
- 2 is Monday
- 6 is Friday
- 7 is Saturday
- for example, 20 runs the task on the 20th day of the month.
- for example 2-6 runs the task plan every week-day
the short day name, for example MON,TUE,FRI,SUN. You can specify a range of days, for example:
- MON-FRI runs the task plan on week-days.
L as a suffix, to specify the last week-day in the month, for example:
- FRIL runs the task plan on the last Friday of the month
- 2L runs the task plan on the last Monday of the month
#number as a suffix, to specify one Nth weekday in the month. For example:
- FRI#1 runs the task plan on the first Friday of the month
- 4#2 runs the task plan on a Wednesday, when it is the 2nd Wednesday of the month
- FRI#5 runs the task plan on the fifth Friday of the month. If there is no fifth Friday, the task plan does not run.
- 2#1, 1#3 is not valid, as it specifies more than one value.
? to indicate no value is specified here when you use the Day of Month field instead.

Year Enter the year of the scheduled date, for example, 2020. You can specify a range of years, for example, 1970-2099.

Anchor
email_user
email_user
Send By Email

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 are sent by a separate email background process. If the background process cannot send the emails immediately, for example, because the email server is down, it will try to re-send periodically until:

either it succeeds
or it exceeds a timeout period.

Emails can also be sent as part of Actionflows. The Actionflow can be added to a task plan to run at a scheduled time, see Scheduling Actionflows and Email Action Configuration.

Field

Description

Email From

Enter the email address from which the generated email will appear to be sent.

Subject Expression

Enter a PhixFlowexpression to create the email subject. The expression must evaluate to a plain text string; see Expressions and PhixScripts.

Use the internal variables _errors, _warnings, _messages

...

Forms: Archive Task

An Archive Task can be created to archive data no longer needed in PhixFlow for processing. When a Stream is archived, PhixFlow creates an Archive Log with useful details of the data archived. Optionally, the archived data can be saved to a file. If this is done, the data can reloaded into PhixFlow using Restore Archive.

Archive Tasks can be created in Task Plans.

Form: Archive Task Details

The following fields are configured on the Details tab:

...

The following fields are configured through separate tabs on the form:

...

Note that if no streams are added into the archive task list then all streams configured to perform archiving that are not added to any other archive task will be archived.

Form Icons

The form provides the standard form icons.

The form also provides the following icons on the Streams tab:

...

Image Removed

...

Shows the list of Streams to select from.

...

Image Removed

...

Deletes the selected object from the list.

...

Form: Analysis Task Details

The following fields are configured on the Details tab:

...

The following fields are configured through separate tabs on the form:

Field	Description
Stream/Alarm Generators	Streams and/or Alarm Generators can be dragged onto the list to add them to the analysis task.

Form Icons

The form provides the standard form icons.

The form also provides the following icons on the Stream/Alarm Generators tab:

...

Image Removed

...

Shows the list of Alarm Generators to select from.

...

Image Removed

...

Shows the list of Streams to select from.

...

Image Removed

...

Deletes the selected object from the list.

Notification

The grid contains a list of the notification rules that belong to the task plan.

To create and add a notification to the list, click

Insert excerpt

	_new
	_new
nopanel	true

. PhixFlow opens the properties tab for a new User Notification Rule.

In Basic Settings → Email As select one of:
- TO
- CC
- BCC
Optionally add an expression to specify the conditions under which the email is sent. To specify sending an email based on logged messages, use the internal variables:
- _errors: to send an email if there are any errors, or more than a specified number of errors
- _warnings: to send an email if there are warnings
- _messages: to send an email if there are any messages
- _suspended: If you have ticked Suspend on Failure, you must send an email to someone who can resolve the issue that caused the task plan to fail.
In the Users section, click
Insert excerpt
_user
_user
nopanel true
to open a list of users. Drag users from the list into the grid.
Click
Insert excerpt
_finish
_finish
nopanel true
to save and close the user notification rule.

To remove a user notification rule from the task, use the toolbar button

Insert excerpt

	_delete
	_delete
nopanel	true

.

Insert excerpt
Actionflow Properties
Actionflow Properties
name LogFileRetentionSettings
nopanel true

Advanced

Field

Description

Exclusion Group

This field is case insensitive. If this field is not empty, only one task plan with this Exclusion Group can be running at any one time. Attempting to run a second task plan with the same exclusion group will return a warning and the task plan will not run. This applies whether the task plan is run manually, automatically using a schedule, or by an action.

When running an action, the initial phase will evaluate the task plan rules and determine which task plan (if any) to run. If the task plan to run has an exclusion group and there is already a task running with this exclusion group then the action will not continue and returns a warning. Exclusion Group are evaluated before any tasks or actions are started.

If there is no task already running with this exclusion group then the action will continue. The action will be considered to be using this exclusion group from this point until the task plan has completed.

Live Search
spaceKey @self
additional none
placeholder Search all help pages
type page

Panel

borderColor	#00374F
titleColor	white
titleBGColor	#00374F
borderStyle	solid
title	Sections on this page

Table of Contents

maxLevel	3
indent	12px
style	none

Version	Old Version 5	New Version Current
Changes made by	Chris Welford	Zoe Baldwin
Saved on	Aug 15, 2017	Sept 11, 2024

Versions Compared

Key

Overview

See Also

Running Task Plans

Task Plan Properties

Basic Settings

Tasks

Schedule

Form Icons

List: Tasks

Columns

List Icons

Form: Send Result By Email

Anchor
email_user
email_user
Send By Email

Forms: Archive Task

Form: Archive Task Details

Form Icons

See Also

List: Email Recipients

Columns

List Icons

See Also

Form: Analysis Task Details

Form Icons

Insert excerpt
Actionflow Properties
Actionflow Properties
name LogFileRetentionSettings
nopanel true

Advanced

Live Search
spaceKey @self
additional none
placeholder Search all help pages
type page

Field	Description
Name	The name of the recipient. This must be a user that has been set up in PhixFlow.
Expression	User Notification Rule - the rule that governs whether the email will be sent to this user. See Notification Rule for further details.

Page Comparison

Versions Compared

Key

Overview

See Also

Running Task Plans

Task Plan Properties

Basic Settings

Tasks

Schedule

Form Icons

List: Tasks

Columns

List Icons

Form: Send Result By Email

Anchoremail_useremail_userSend By Email

Forms: Archive Task

Form: Archive Task Details

Form Icons

See Also

List: Email Recipients

Columns

List Icons

See Also

Form: Analysis Task Details

Form Icons

Insert excerptActionflow PropertiesActionflow PropertiesnameLogFileRetentionSettingsnopaneltrue

Advanced

Live SearchspaceKey@selfadditionalnoneplaceholderSearch all help pagestypepage

Anchor
email_user
email_user
Send By Email

Insert excerpt
Actionflow Properties
Actionflow Properties
name LogFileRetentionSettings
nopanel true

Live Search
spaceKey @self
additional none
placeholder Search all help pages
type page