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delay deployment?

manju166

I came up with a req where user has to select there own dates for deploying the content after submitting the job, I am not a workflow expert and just started building them.
any help is appreciated

thanks
manju

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Adam Stoller

You may find a lot of relevant information in the thread "Workflow help available" in this forum - as we kind of covered that in trying to answer a question about delayed submission.

However - to provide a quick recap:
1) dummytasks with timeout values set to the specific desired date/time of the deployment - preceding the externaltask to perform the deployment
2) dummtyasks with timeout value set relative to "now" to delay until the desired date/time of the deployment - preceding the externaltask to perform the deployment
3) externaltask or cgitask that takes the desired time (absolute or relative) and uses 'cron' or 'at' to schedule the deployment
4) [not mentioned in the other thread, because it was really about delayed submission]: externaltask or cgitask that takes the desired time (absolute or relative) and uses the OpenDeploy 5.x scheduling CLTs to schedule the deployment (iwodschedadd, iwodschedget, etc.)

If you're responsible for developing workflows and aren't comfortable with just learning from the manual and reading the DTD's I'd suggest taking one of our Workflow courses. If you're not comfortable with Perl - I believe we usually offer an introductory Perl course just prior to our workflow courses. Check http://www.interwoven.com/services/training for more details

--fish
(Interwoven, Curriculum Development)

Migrateduser

As was mentioned in the "Workflow Help Needed" thread, you can use a dummytask to provide a delay in your workflow, but there are drawbacks to that method which were mentioned by someone from Interwoven who posted in that thread. There's a CLT and a method in WFtask.pm called setTimeout which allows you to modify the timeout value of a task, so if your user selects a date (from a cgitask perhaps) at some point in the job, you can set the timeout for the dummytask programmatically.

I use a different method that I described in the other thread. I have a cgitask that is executed, if the final approver so chooses, that prompts the user for a delayed deployment date/time. The cgitask remains active until the selected date/time is reached, then a callback is automatically activated and the next task is the externaltask that executes the deployment. The entire process is cron dependent. No use of dummytasks are used. The nice part of this is that the user can simply restart the task to choose to cancel and return to some other task in the job, or can choose a different date/time, or deploy immediately. I can share the details if anyone is interested.

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

manju166

thanks for the response.
Dave can you share the information with me and I am on WindowsNT Env.
The present workflow build by me has a assign /edit task and when the user creates a new job the dcr's get the file name by time and date, while the files get deployed it automatically generates the .asp file with file name as current date and time.
I have to add the delay deployment to this task.
Please let me know if I am not clear

Migrateduser

I can definitely share my process, but I am on Solaris, and I am unfamiliar with any equivalent utility on NT for cron on UNIX. I'm sure there is some type of scheduling tool you can use. At my final approval usertask, the options for the successor task is either "Reject", Approve and Deploy", or "Delay and Deploy". If the approver chooses "Delay and Deploy", a cgitask is executed which displays 4 radio button choices:

o No Change (Retain current selection)
o Go Now (Execute the deployment immediately)
o Delay Indefinitely (Delay the task till further action)
o Delay Timed (Select a date/time for deployment)

The first three speak for themselves. If they select Delay Timed, they can then select a day/month/year/hour/minute for the deployment to occur. When they finish, the cgitask remains active so that they can restart it to change their selection if they so choose. Behind the scenes, a line was added to a specific file - let's call this file the delay config file. That line is in a space delimeted format containing the following info:

TaskID month day year hour minute

Another script is executed every minute by a cron process. This script checks to see if any lines exist in the delay config file I mentioned above. If so, it formulates the current time and checks it against the time in each line of the delay config file. If a particular line's time is greater than the current time, a callback for that TaskID is performed, and the job moves on to the next task, which is an externaltask that performs the deployment. That's it in a nutshell.

This process was coded before I took this job, but it is quite useful. It requries more scripts than you might want, but it works and we use it often. If you can find a job scheduler on NT that works like cron (can execute a script every minute), you can duplicate this. I have a feeling one of the other methods Adam mentioned may be simpler (the new deployment scheduler in OpenDeploy sound interesting).

If you want code, email me.

As far as the process you described in your post, I know nothing about Templating. I think we're the only Interwoven installation on the planet that doesn't use Templating, so when you use Templating terms, you might as well be speaking Chinese to me.

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

manju166

CAn you please let me know where i can find more information on iwodschedadd, iwodschedget

Adam wrote--
externaltask or cgitask that takes the desired time (absolute or relative) and uses the OpenDeploy 5.x scheduling CLTs to schedule the deployment (iwodschedadd, iwodschedget, etc.)

thankyou

Migrateduser

These CLTs (command line tools) are covered in the OpenDeploy Reference manual

Brinko Kobrin
Interwoven Staff Engineer

Adam Stoller

What Brinko said ... and you can run them with the '-h' flag to get usage information:

C:\> od-home\bin\iwodschedadd -h
 Usage: iwodschedadd -h | -v
 Usage: iwodschedadd depName [-r nX] [-s nX] [-e nX] [-c comment]
...

--fish
(Interwoven, Curriculum Development)

Harsh

We have a certain requirement where workflow users should get an option to choose date and time of deployment and the content should get deployed at that specified date/time. How to configure/construct a CLT command "iwodschedadd" for this? How to configure the deployment configuration file as the staging area and files are dynamically generated by workflow.
Anyone with any ideas on how this could be implemented? Is there anyway taskid can specified?

Thanks

Migrateduser

The OpenDeploy Admin Guide shows the syntax of the iwodshedadd CLT. Take a look at the documentation. Not sure I understand what you mean by "How to configure the deployment configuration file as the staging area and files are dynamically generated by workflow.". Can you elaborate on that? I create my deployment configuration on-the-fly. We always use a filelist generated by the script that creates the deployment config. It sounds as if you are unfamiliar with OpenDeploy. You might want to get the basics figured out before you try and tackle something complex.

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

Harsh

I understand that scheduled deployment can be handled using "iwodschedadd" CLT and as the per the manual one needs to specify deployment configuration file (XML file). The XML file requires something like this:
<sourceFilesystem
area="/local/website/files"
filelist=/local/OpenDeploy/files/filelist.txt
/>
where filelist.txt needs to be specified but our requirement is it should get files from workflow task. Also staging area will change depending where workflow is started. I can have the filelist.txt generated using a script in external task but what if more than 1 user runs the workflow then the filelist generated by one user will be replaced by another user.
My simple question is - how to handle scheduled deployment by providing date/time in a workflow and deploying files associated with that task at specified time?

Migrateduser

You can set the filelist value up as a variable and specify the value of that variable on the command line. See the section titled Parameter Substitution, which is on page 247 of the OpenDeploy Admin Guide.

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

Harsh

It seems parameter substitution can be used with "iwodstart" CLT by specifying -k option (key/value). I don't think it can be used with "iwodschedadd" CLT as the syntax doesn't provide any option to specify parameters. You mean to say scheduled deployment can be achieved using "iwodstart"?

Streamserve_error.JPG

Migrateduser

Absolutely. Just not by using iwodschedadd. You have to be a little more creative. I believe if you read this entire thread, you will get a couple good ideas for doing it.

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

Harsh

anyway, thanks for your help.