How to perform cleanup tasks when clicked on "End Job"

Hello All,

We have a workflow which have a task which performs some locking task when workflow starts. The unlocking is performed by an external task which is just before endtask.

But when someone ends it manually by clicking "End Job" the unlock task doesn't get executed and no unlocking is done. This results in some inconsistencies.

Any idea how should I tackle this.

Thanks in Advance.

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kaalraa

Hello All,

We have a workflow which have a task which performs some locking task when workflow starts. The unlocking is performed by an external task which is just before endtask.

But when someone ends it manually by clicking "End Job" the unlock task doesn't get executed and no unlocking is done. This results in some inconsistencies.

Any idea how should I tackle this.

Thanks in Advance.

Read iwevents.log file, from where you can get information as which event is being called internally when a user clicks Action>> kill job.

You need to capture that event and run your custom script at that point of time.

HTH

Migrateduser

Thanks Kaalraa

That seems a logical solution.

Could you please explain where can I get info about running custom script on particular event.

Thanks.

Adam Stoller

Read iwevents.log file, from where you can get information as which event is being called internally when a user clicks Action>> kill job.

You need to capture that event and run your custom script at that point of time.

HTH

In theory - that might make sense (using an iwat trigger script to process the termination of a job) - however, since trigger scripts are post-operative, the workflow information would no longer exist when the script is fired, and thus would not be able to find out which files were associated with the job that [just] terminated.

I prefer a combination of robust workflow design and user-training (and if possible, removal of the End Job option in the GUI). The robustness and training revolve around finding places in the workflow where someone might have a legitimate reason to abort a job - providing them a task transition to do so - and having that transition to the externaltask to unlock the files before transitioning to the endtask. (The user training should be obvious, I hope)

In 6.7.1 with FlexRoles I think you might be able to remove the option for End Jobs for all roles except Master - but I haven't tried this yet.

Migrateduser

Thanks Adam,

Understood your point.

One solution would be to provide "End Job" option in each workflow task which will do the cleanup task and advise users to use this option instead of Actions->End Job.

Can you suggest any other option in order to make the workflow design robust.

Thanks

nipper

Two things.

I always have a timeout on external tasks. If the task does not complete then it goes to an admin task (mine) and one of the options is cleanup/cancel. That takes care of the WF cancel due to unforeseen circumstances

Second I always keep a cancel button in parallel with the review process. This is a group task (sometimes I am the only member of the group) that I can take, when I cancel it runs my cancel and cleanup process.

Adam's 1st point is critical. If your WF is robust and users know what they are doing, this is seldom needed.