WFM URL Tasks, Perl, and Passing Parameters

TS Environment: TeamSite 7.3.2, WFM

Using a URL task, is it possible to pass the task ID to a Perl script specified in the URI? I know this sort of thing is possible with a CGI Task (passing parameters to a Perl script), however in this case I can't use a CGI Task because I need the task to which I would be passing said parameter to kick off immediately and the preceding task is not a user or group task. (Also, no user interaction is required, I just need the Perl script to run and then move on to the next task.)

Ideally I would use an external task but that would require rewriting the Perl script in Java, which is something I am trying to avoid.

Thanks

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nipper

I would beg to differ on your assumption.

You can use WFM external tasks to run perl scripts. I use this in a command in one of my tasks:

$IW_HOME/iw-perl/bin/iwperl $IW_HOME/custom/bin/scripts/thistask.ipl

jwpdx

Sorry, I should've clarified that we're using non-OS users. From the TeamSite 7.3 Admin guide, section titled, "Impact of Using Non-OS Users in TeamSite":

"• Non-OS users cannot be the owners of external tasks since OS impersonation
is not possible; use an URL external task. If a non-OS user attempts to
execute an external task, the task is not launched and an error is displayed in
the iwjoberrors.log file."

Thanks

nipper

And yes that would be true.

Minor detail.

Can you run the task as a 3rd party ? tsadmin or root ?

jwpdx

The question really is, can I pass the task ID to a Perl script using a URL task. If yes, then presumably I can use TeamSite::WFtask to get any further task-related values I need.

Currently, when I call the script from a URL task, the following:

my $taskid = shift( @ARGV );

doesn't actually end up assigning anything to my $taskid variable.

As far as external tasks and Perl go, changing the owner of the external task never made any difference during any of my testing.

If only WFM had a $IW_TASKID variable...

Thanks,

nipper

Not certain about getting the task ID from an URL task, never tried it. But I do know that you CAN set the owner of an external task as someoen who has local access and it works, I do that on my current project.

The task owner is a configurable variable (CONFIGURABLE(tsadmin)) where that is a global variable (because I use it in more than 1 task).

Rick Poulin

nipper wrote:

Not certain about getting the task ID from an URL task, never tried it. But I do know that you CAN set the owner of an external task as someoen who has local access and it works

I second this, it's the best approach. If you wrote a URLTask wrapper in Java, you'd basically be reinventing this anyway. It can be done, but based on your use case, there's no reason to.

jwpdx

Thanks Andy, I was able to get this to work by having the task owned by root. Much appreciated!