Adding Jobs and Dependencies

This section describes some of the basic tasks you need to perform to add jobs and job groups. Here’s an example of what defined jobs and job groups look like in the TA Web Client. Note that many of the job definition columns are not visible here; you need to scroll to see all fields.

Adding a Job or Job Group

You can add a job or group rule and have it added to the production schedule simultaneously. Adding a job to the production schedule is optional. When jobs are added to groups, many properties can be inherited from the parent group.

To add a job or job group:

  1. Open the TA Web Client.

  1. Click Definitions > Jobs on the Navigation pane to display the Jobs pane.

  1. Click the location where you want to insert your job as follows:

    • To add a job or job group under a job group, right-click the job group under which you want to add your job or job group.

    • To add a job or job group at the root level of the hierarchy, right-click a root-level job or on a white section of the pane.

  1. Choose Job or Job Group from the context menu or click the Add, then open Job or Job Group on the TA toolbar.

    Note: Depending on what Agents and Adapters you have licensed and configured, you can choose to create a job of a specific adapter type.

Depending on your selection, the Job Definition or the Job Group Definition dialog appears. For more information on the definition dialog boxes, see the Jobs section in the Tidal Automation User Guide for details.

Adding Jobs Automatically to the Production Schedule

Jobs with associated calendars are automatically added to the production schedule through the TA automatic compilation process. Jobs with calendars are only added to the schedule for days that are in the set of days defined for the calendar. No intervention is necessary, but you can customize its operation to tailor compilation to your needs. For more information, the “Defining Jobs” section in the Tidal Automation User Guide for details. Another way of automatically adding jobs to the production schedule is through new job actions. For more information about new job actions, see the “Actions and Alerts” section in the Tidal Automation User Guide for details.

Adding Jobs Manually

To add a job manually:

  1. Click Definitions > Jobs on the Navigation pane to display the Jobs pane.

  1. Right-click the job or job group to add to the production schedule and select Insert Into Schedule from the context menu. Or select the job or job group to add to the production schedule, and from the Activities main menu select Insert Into Schedule.

    The Insert Job Into Schedule dialog appears. The Job/Group field should contain the name of the job or group you right-clicked, and the Date field should contain the current date. If the job or group you selected has a time window, this will be displayed in the From and Until fields. Any parameters that were set in the job’s or group’s definition will be listed in the Parameters field. If the job or group has dependencies, you may want to select the Override job’s dependencies option so that your job or group will enter the schedule without checking for its dependencies.

  1. Click Yes at the confirmation dialog.

    The job is added to today’s production schedule regardless of its calendar dates (if any). If the job is defined to repeat, only one instance of the job will be added to the schedule. Only jobs with the Unscheduled Allowed option selected (definition dialog box, Options tab) can be added in this manner.

Adding a Job or Job Group Dependency

Jobs can depend on the status of other jobs and job groups. For example, you can set Job B to run when Job A completes normally using a job dependency for Job B.

To add a job or job group dependency:

  1. Click Definitions > Jobs on the Navigation pane to display the Jobs pane.

  1. Double-click the job or job group that you want to edit.

  1. Click the Dependencies tab.

  1. Click Add and choose Add Job Dependency from the drop-down menu.

  1. Choose Browse on the Job/Group field to open the Search dialog to search for the job that this job will depend on. You can also view a drop-down list of jobs by clicking down-arrow. If you used Browse to narrow your search for jobs, the drop-down list will be that job subset.

  2. Click the Operator field and select whether the file dependency Equals or Does not equal the status to satisfy the dependency. For example, you can set the job dependency to Equal the Completed Normally status.

  3. Click the Status field and select the status to use to satisfy the dependency. You can choose between Active, Completed Abnormally, Completed Normally, Error Occurred, Externally Defined and Completed.

    Note: A job group becomes active when any of its associated jobs become active. If all jobs in a job group depend on the job group becoming active, no jobs will launch.

    If the job repeats during the day, select which instance of the job will trigger the dependency from the Occurrence drop-down menu.

    • Click First Occurrence if you want the first instance of the preceding job to match the status criterion.

    • Click Last Occurrence if you want the last instance of the preceding job to match the status criterion.

    • Click Match Occurrence when both jobs repeat during the day, and the dependency should match instance numbers.

      There are two ways to apply the First/Last/Match dependency logic: by day instance or group instance.

      Note: You can specify an instance offset in the Offset field. This field only applies to First Occurrence and Last Occurrence. When applied to First Occurrence, specifies which instance after the first to use in satisfying the dependency. When applied to Last Occurrence, specifies which instance from the last.

      Note: If you want to specify an instance of a job that occurred a certain number of days in the past, go to the Date Offset field, and type the number of days in the past for the required job dependency. For example, if Job A repeats daily, but you want your job to be dependent on Job A’s instance 3 days ago, specify 3 in this field.

  1. Click Ignore this dependency if Job not in schedule if the dependency only applies when the job is part of the production schedule.

  2. Click OK to add the job dependency.

    Note: If your job has more than one dependency (file, job, variable or time), all dependencies must be satisfied for the job to run. It is possible for a dependency’s state to change from satisfied to unsatisfied. If this occurs, the job will only run when all dependencies have been satisfied at the same time.

Adding a File Dependency

You can have a job that depends on the status of a file on any system in your network. For example, Job A can be defined to run only when file data.txt exists in the c:\data directory.

To add a file dependency to a job:

  1. Click Definitions > Jobs on the Navigation pane to display the Jobs pane.

  1. Double-click the job or job group that you want to edit to display the Job or Job Group Definition dialog.

  1. Click the Dependencies tab.

  1. Click Add and select Add File Dependency from the dependency context menu to display the File Dependency Definition dialog box.

  2. Type the path and filename for the required file or click Browse to select a file on the local TA Web client.

  3. Click Variables to add System or Job variables as a file name.

  4. Choose the agent where the file needs to exist.

  1. Choose the dependency type for the file from these options:

    • Exists – The file exists at the path and on the agent specified.

    • Does Not Exist – The file no longer exists, or is not found at the path or on the agent specified.

    • Has Changed In DD:HH:MM – The file dependency is satisfied when the file changed within the specified time in days, hours, and minutes after the job entered the production schedule. For example, if the job entered the schedule at 1:00 PM, the period specified is 6 hours, and the file changed after 7:00 PM (or later), the dependency is met.

    • Stable For DD:HH:MM – The file dependency is satisfied when the file size has not changed for the specified time in days, hours, and minutes from the present time. For example, if the file’s modified time is 1:00 PM, the period specified is 6 hours, and the job enters the schedule at 3:00 PM, the dependency is satisfied in 4 hours, i.e., 7:00 PM.

    • Size >= – The size of the file is greater than or equal to the specified amount in bytes.

    • Size <= – The size of the file is less than or equal to the specified amount in bytes.

  1. Click OK.

Note: If your job has more than one dependency (file, job, variable or time), all dependencies must be satisfied for the job to run. It is possible for a dependency’s state to change from satisfied to unsatisfied. If this occurs, the job will only run when all dependencies have been satisfied at the same time.

Adding a Variable Dependency

You can make a job depend on the value of a user-defined variable. For example, Job A should only run when the variable RunVar is equal to ten. For more information on variables, see the “Jobs” chapter in the Tidal Automation User Guide.

To add a variable dependency to a job:

  1. Click Definitions > Jobs on the Navigation pane to display the Jobs pane.

  1. Double-click the job or job group that you want to edit.

  1. Click the Dependencies tab from the Job Definition dialog.

  1. Click Add and select Add Variable Dependency from the drop-down menu to display the Variable Dependency Definition dialog.

    Note: If you are creating an inter master dependency, select from the Master drop-down list a master to manage the variable dependency. Leave the default field selection, if you are not creating an inter master dependency.

  2. Click the Variable Name field and choose a variable from the drop-down menu that the job or job group will depend on.

  1. Click the Operator field and choose an operator from the drop-down list to make the appropriate comparison to the value of the variable.

    When text strings are used in comparison, “lower” letters of the alphabet are of greater value than “higher” letters.

    Example: Z > A. If the first letters of the string match, succeeding letters are used for comparison.

    Example: AZ > AA. The operation works similar to sorting strings in ascending order. Upper versus lower case is not considered (i.e., a=A, b=B, etc.).

  1. Click the Variable Value field and enter the value of the variable required for the dependency to be met. You can also select from a list of system, job, user-defined and public variables to which the variable should be compared. For example, suppose you are using a variable dependency to repeat a job a specific number of times, and this amount changes periodically. You can define how many times to repeat the job by changing its variable value instead of changing its job definition.