nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Delayed Deployment of content

tsrookie

Gidday All,

Your comments welcomed please

We have a situation where content may be generated today and not due for publication for a few weeks, what is the best way to handle this.

Should a separate workflow job be created for content that is not for immediate deployment.

Is the publishing of this content handled by opendeploy?

I am only new to workflows and welcome any help?

Regards
Colin

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

gzevin

you can set a timeout on the external task that deploys the assets

Greg Zevin, Ph.D. Comp. Sc.
Independent Interwoven Consultant/Architect
Sydney, AU

Migrateduser

We use a cgitask that stays active until the delay date/time is reached. This allows for the user to, after they set the initial delay date, modify the time or choose to just execute the deployment immediately. The process incorporates config files and a cron job as well. But it works great.

Dave Smith
Sr. Software Engineer
Nike, Inc.
(503) 671-4238
DavidH.Smith@nike.com

Migrateduser

That wouldn't be quite what he's after would it? I've never used a timeout on an externaltask, but on any other type of task, it activates the transition after that period of time if nothing else has already activated a transition. I wouldn't expect it to delay running the command on an externaltask.

We do this by having a dummytask beforehand with a timeout on it. Inclusion of the dummytask is optional, based upon whether the user has selected a delayed date rather than todays date:

e.g.



my ($deploy_due_date)  = __VALUE__('task_due_date');

#Snipped out a bunch of stuff you don't need here

my $pre_tagtable_html =

"<script>
 function calendar_off() {
  document.iwwft_instantiator.task_due_date.value = '';
  document.iwwft_instantiator.task_due_date.disabled = true;
  document.iwwft_instantiator.twc_cal.disabled = true;
  document.iwwft_instantiator.twc_cal.style.visibility = 'hidden';
  document.iwwft_instantiator.task_due_date.style.backgroundColor = '#cccccc';
 }

 function calendar_on() {
  var dt = new Date();
  document.iwwft_instantiator.task_due_date.value =
   dt.getMonth() + 1 + '/' + dt.getDate() +
   '/' + dt.getFullYear();
  document.iwwft_instantiator.task_due_date.disabled = false;
  document.iwwft_instantiator.task_due_date.readOnly = true;
  document.iwwft_instantiator.twc_cal.disabled = false;
  document.iwwft_instantiator.twc_cal.style.visibility = 'visible';
  document.iwwft_instantiator.task_due_date.style.backgroundColor = '#ffffff';
 }
</script>";

#Snipped out more stuff you don't need here

 my($pickdate) = join(" ",
  "<input type='text' size='15'>",
  "<img id='twc_cal' src='/iw-icons/calendarBlue.gif'  ",
   "onclick=\"javascript&colon;window.open('/iw-bin/twc_calendar.cgi/allow_past_dates=0/allow_weekends=0/return_item=iwwft_instantiator.task_due_date',",
   "'calendar', 'width=200,height=230,resizable=no,toolbar=no,scrollbars=no,titlebar=no')\"",
  "onmouseover \"window.status='DatePicker';return true;\"",
  "onmouseout=\"window.status='';return true;\" />");

    TAG_info(
  immediate_deploy  => [html =>
    "<input type='radio' value='true' checked 
     onclick='calendar_off()'>Yes</input>" .
    "<input type='radio' value='false'
     onclick='calendar_on()'>No</input>",
  label=>"Deploy Immediately",
  ],
 );

 TAG_info(
  task_due_date => [html => "$pickdate",
   label=> "Go Live Date",
   error_msg => 'Select date',
   is_required => "false",
  ],
 );

#Even more snippage

if ( $deploy_due_date ne "" ) {
 # change successors and activations to fit the new tasks
 $Add_Attachments_successor = "<succ v='Lock_Files'/>";
 $Submit_Files_activation = "<pred v='Unlock_Files_Submit'/>";
} else {
 $Add_Attachments_successor = "<succ v='Submit'/>";    
 $Submit_Files_activation = "<pred v='Add_Attachments'/>";
}

And then there's another method which just returns the xml for the dummytask, and two external tasks, one to unlock the files before the dummytask and one to lock after.

Which brings up an important philosophical debate, to which I doubt there is a universally accepted correct answer. Do you want to submit the file immediately so that it's versioned, and just delay the deployment, or do you want to delay the submit as well (this is what we do)? Do you want to leave the file locked until it's submitted and deployed, or programatically unlock it (this is what we do, but I don't really like it, because it means someone has approved a file for later submission and deployment with a certain understanding of what was in it, which might change before the deployment actually happens.

Migrateduser

Is that homegrown, or based off of code you got from IWOV? I seem to remember doing a job a few years ago with an IWOV consultant out of Australia where he ended up with a very similar solution for 4.5.1 using some code that someone had developed internally.

Migrateduser

It was homegrown by one of my predecessors here. The one you're referring to could very well have come from us. It was before my time...

Dave Smith
Sr. Software Engineer
Nike, Inc.
(503) 671-4238
DavidH.Smith@nike.com

gzevin

you are right, I've just checked my code, it sets the timout on the dummy task., not directly on the external one

Greg Zevin, Ph.D. Comp. Sc.
Independent Interwoven Consultant/Architect
Sydney, AU

gzevin

if you tell me who it was I can get a code for you Smiley Happy

(or might even have one in my archives)

Greg Zevin, Ph.D. Comp. Sc.
Independent Interwoven Consultant/Architect
Sydney, AU

Dwayne

Another option for you, if you're using OD 6 and have a database available, is to use the metadata-based deployment feature. OD will build a query to select the files which should be deployed based on the criteria you set (publish date <= today, for instance) and then only deploy those modified files which meet that criteria.

Note though that this does NOT directly read and values (EAs, DCT data, etc) from the filesystem. It only works by querying a database, so you'll need to get that information published into a table, either using DAS or an external task in your workflow.

--

Current project: TS 5.5.2/6.1 W2K

tsrookie

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your advice here I think this is the way we will go, looks easy enough to implement. I have since experimented with Dummy tasks and the timeout feature I like the addition of the calendar.

Cheers
Colin