externaltasks and timeouts

I wanted an external task to do an IWJOBC -i xxxxx. Easy enough, but I really didn't want to write an external script that would then do a callback to transition the WF on to the next task. So I had the task timeout after a minute.

I realize that there is no way to know if the external task succeeded or not, but....

Like this:

<externaltask name="startJob" owner="xxxxx" description="Start new copy of workflow">
<areavpath v='xxxxx'/>
<successors>
<successorset description="kill this job">
<succ v="logJob"/>
</successorset>
</successors>
<command v='e:/apps/interwoven/teamsite/bin/iwjobc -i
e:/apps/interwoven/teamsite/local/config/wft/NIF_regenerate.xml'/>
<timeout v="+000001">
<succ v="logJob" />
</timeout>
</externaltask>

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Comments

Migrateduser

That brings up an interesting question. How does a timeout work on an externaltask? Does the timeout begin counting down immediately, and if the externaltask script does not callback before the countdown is complete, it is considered timed out? I guess this could be effective if you want to assume if your script doesn't complete within some period of time, it's considered hung. Or in Dan's example, which is pretty weird itself, but I'm sure Dan has an outstanding reason for doing what he's doing. Smiley Happy

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

mogoo

Smitty-
I think I'm doing something similar to Dan's. I can tell you this: the timeout begins counting immediately on an externaltask. For example, if the timeout is 1 min, but the ipl it calls on takes 10 min, the workflow will move on to the next task 1 min after activating the externaltask, regardless of whether the ipl callsback or not. It's handy if you want to automatically end one workflow and start another, or if you have other tasks that could be completed while your script is still running. Does that answer your question?
maureen

Migrateduser

Yes, thanks Maureen. That's an interesting concept - I can imagine it could be very useful, especially if you have a task that just needs to go off and do something and it has no relevance to the workflow itself - you just want to keep moving while the external script does its thing. Very cool stuff. Thanks again.

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