Task

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What is a Task?

A Task is a sequence of Presence Task Elements (or Nodes), designed to perform a specific business process. The following is a glance at what a simple Task looks like in the Presence Task Designer:

Simple task.gif

In the above example four Task Elements are used, specifically:

  • Start Of Task
    This denotes the entry point for the Task.
  • Get Customer List
    This runs a database query to retrieve a list of customers.
  • Send Email
    This sends an email to each of the customers returned from the previous Node.
  • End of Task
    This denotes the point at which the Task ends.

Collectively these Task Elements form a Task, and the purpose of that Task is the query a customers database and send out an email to each customer.

The arrows between the Task Elements indicate the flow that the Task should take when it executes. Tasks always start from the "Start of Task" node.

Example Tasks

There are a number of example Tasks preconfigured with Presence. To view them in the Administration Client, browse to the "Demo" category.

Creating a Task

To create a new Task in the Administration Client, first select the Category that the Task belongs to. Then either right click on the Category and select "Create New > Task" from the pop-up menu, or choose File > New > Task from the application menu. Note that you are unable to create new Tasks in the root (Presence) category.

For more information on creating a simple Task, refer to the Task Designer section.

Task Options

Please see the New Task Dialog page for a full description of these options:

  • Task Name
This is the name that you give to your Task. It should summarize the purpose of the Task (e.g. Find Outstanding Invoices).
  • Task Description
This is a detailed description of the Task and its function.
  • Logging Options
This lets you determine how much activity should be logged, in addition to setting the length of time logs should be retained before being deleted. You can also determine the behaviour of logging on Nested Tasks.
  • Time Zone
You can specify that a Task should run in a different Time Zone to the default (system) time zone. This is useful if you are communicating with systems in other countries.
  • Advanced Options
Allows you to specify preferred servers and included / excluded servers. You can also choose to have the Task run in its own dedicated JVM.

Testing

You can test the behaviour of your Task using the Debug tool - right click in Task design view and select "Debug" to debug on any available server, or "Debug On..." to test the Task on a specific server.

Going Live

Tasks must be added to the Live Tasks Queue in order to make them accessible to the Task Scheduler, On Demand server or SOAP Server. Once a Task has been added to the Live Tasks Queue the Presence administration client will display a warning when attempting to edit it. It is good practice, but not essential, to remove Tasks from the Live Task Queue before editing them.