Task manager

Owned by Stanislav N. (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jul 23, 2024 by ZL Support
7 min read

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Table of contents

Description

The task manager allows you to configure the execution of projects on a schedule or by a trigger (the appearance of a file at the specified path).

It is very similar to the Scheduler, but in the case of the Scheduler, you need to configure the schedule for each project separately, and the Task Manager allows you to create a task that will contain several projects (projects will be executed sequentially, from top to bottom).

Main menu

Add task

Adding a new task to the Manager. The details of the process of adding are described below.

Remove task

Deleting the selected task.

Run now

One-time execution of the task.

Stop

Soft stop - the current working template reaches its logical end and the task stops, even if there are more projects to be executed further in the queue of this task. The schedule is also disabled.

To start the schedule again, you need to re-enable the checkbox opposite the desired task in the “Enable” column.

Interrupt

Quick stops working. The project will be terminated immediately.

Setup

This button activates the settings for the highlighted task. They are described in more detail below.

Creating a new task

First, you need to click the "Add task" button in the main menu.

Schedule settings window

After that, a new window will open, where you first need to set up a schedule for the task (you can read more about the schedule features in the articles about Scheduler).
After you have finished configuring the schedule, click the “Next” button.

Add project window

Add

After clicking on the button, a standard file selection dialog opens. Several templates can be selected at once.

Remove

Allows you to remove the selected templates from the job.

Up\down

When the task starts, the projects in it will be executed in turn - from top to bottom. With the help of these buttons you can change the order of templates in the queue.

Group

Allows you to group projects inside task.

Templates with the same group name and those adjacent to each other will be executed simultaneously.
Control will pass to the next group (or template) only after all projects within the current group have finished working.

In this column, you can manually add any text value.

Let me remind you: only those tasks that have the same group and are located next to each other are performed simultaneously.

The task contains 7 projects.

Имя проекта

Группа

Имя проекта

Группа

Project №1

one

Project №2

one

Project №3

two

Project №4

two

Project №5

two

Project №6

one

Project №7

one

After starting the task, Project №1 and №2 (the first group one) start simultaneously.
After the previous projects have completed their work, Projects №3, №4 and №5 (group two) start.
When they are completed, Projects №6 and №7 will begin to run (second group one)

Continue running in case of errors

If the setting is enabled, then execution will go to the next template in the queue even if the current one finished with errors.

The task contains 2 templates.

In the first, an error occurs due to which it cannot successfully complete. Further, there may be several options for the development of events.

  • If the “Continue running in case of errors” setting is OFF, the template will try to execute again and again until the number specified in the “Number of executions per project” setting (Stop tab, described below in the Task Setup section) will not be achieved. After that, the job will stop and wait for the next run according to the configured schedule.

  • If the “Continue running in case of errors” setting is enabled, then, again, the template will try to execute again and again until the number specified in the “Number of executions per project” setting is reached, after it is reached, execution will go to the next template in the queue. And so, until all the templates in the task run out. After the last project finishes work, the task will wait for the next run, according to the configured Schedule.

Number of executions per project

Each project in the task will run the number of times specified in this setting. Each project will try in a row, all at once.

The task contains 3 templates. In the setting “Number of executions per project” - 3.

After the start of the task, the first project is launched and it will be executed 3 times in a row, then the second project starts and it will also be executed 3 times in a row, then the 3rd project will start and execute 3 attempts.
After that, the task will be considered completed.

Then click “Next” and “Finish”.

Task table

All added tasks are displayed in the task table, which consists of the following columns:

Enable - enables/disables the execution of the task according to the schedule. If the checkbox is checked, then the task is enabled.
Name - the name of the task. By default, each task is named “Task”. You can change it in Settings (described below).
Projects - a list of projects that are included in this task.
Last run - time of the last run of this task.
Number of executions - how many times this task has already been completed.
Next run - Time of the next run, according to the configured Schedule.

Sorting - tasks can be sorted by each of the columns, just click on its name.

Setting up a task

There are several ways to open the settings for a task:

  • highlight and press the "Setup" button in the main menu

  • via the context menu

  • double click on the task

Task name

Here you can enter a new name.

Projects in Task Tab

Editing the list of tasks

The upper part of the tab consists of the already familiar Window for adding projects (described above in the section of the same name).

Here you can also Add/Remove projects, change the order, customize the behavior when errors occur, change or assign groups.

Additionally, here you can open and fill in the input settings for each of the projects. To do this, double-click on the project.

There are two other tabs at the bottom of the window:

Settings

The parameters are configured separately for each project in the task, and NOT for the entire task!

  • Attempts count - how many times the project should be executed. If it is -1 (minus one, infinite execution), then the template will be executed as many times as specified in the “Success count” setting in the Stop tab.

  • Maximum # of threads - the number of concurrently running threads for this template.

  • Proxy - is it worth using a proxy from the built-in ProxyChecker.

  • Rules - the rules by which the proxy will be taken.

You can read more about these settings in the Settings article.

Stop

  • Success count - by default, this will contain the number that you specified in the "Number of executions per project" setting when creating a task (described above).
    If it is -1 (minus one, infinite execution), then the template will be executed as many times as specified in “Attempts count” in the Settings tab.

  • Maximum threshold count for consecutive failures - the number of errors in a row, after reaching which the execution will move to the next template in the queue or the entire task will be stopped (the behavior depends on the "Continue running in case of errors" setting, which is described above in the "Add projects window" section)

  • Execution timeout (seconds) - if the project is not completed in the number of seconds specified here, then it will be forcibly interrupted.

  • Execute BadEnd when aborting project - this setting will allow you to handle project interruptions by BadEnd. Both manual interruption (using the "Interrupt" button) and timeout are taken into account.

Do not set “Maximum threshold count for consecutive failures” to -1 (minus one), because in case of an error in the template, it will never terminate!

You can read more about these settings in the article Stop

Conditions for execution Tab

Here you can edit the schedule according to which the project will be executed. You can read more about these settings in the Scheduler article.

How to view the project execution log?

To do this, go to Projects, then select a task in the side menu, and then select a project in the project table (or projects; several can be selected with the CTRL or SHIFT key pressed). After that, the Log tab will be active.

Examples

Running in multithreaded mode with a different number of executions per template

After adding a new task, go to its settings.

  • Select the required project and go to the Settings tab.

    • In the “Attempts count” box, enter the number of repetitions you want.

    • In “Maximum # of threads”, the number of threads for this project.

  • After that, you need to go to the "Stop" tab

    • in "Success count" set -1 (minus one).

Useful links