return string from external task

lissal

I am publishing a new edition in an external script where it's named with date and time e.g. "2004-03-19_18:22:10".

Later in the workflow I need to be able to rollback to files in the previous edition and at that time there could have been other editions created since the one above so in order to find the name of the edition previous to "2004-03-19_18:22:10" I will run the command
"iwattrib -n $branch/EDITION/2004-03-19_18:22:10 prevedition"

The question is, how do I get the name of the edition I created earlier in the flow? Is it possible to return a value from the external task where it was named and created?

One solution could be to create a log file named after the WorkflowID and write/read it there, but are there any better solutions?

Regards,
Lisa

JonathonG

Use a job variable. You would set the job variable in the task that does the publishing and get it in the task that needs it. If your "publish" task is only run once in the workflow, you can create the variable at that point:

$job->CreateVariable(see docs on TeamSite::WFworkflow for parameters)

And then in your subsequent task you retrieve it:

$job->GetVariable(see docs again)

Of course, if you put the variable into your job spec up front (in a <variables> element under the <workflow> element), you could just use Get/Set commands on the value. This is more relevant if you've got several tasks that need to change the value of the job variable.

HTH,

Jonathon
Independent Interwoven Contractor