Automation Engine Priority

The AE priority influences the processing of tasks. It can be used for clients and tasks, although with very different impacts.

The UC_CLIENT_SETTINGS variable contains entries for both priority types in which the administrator can specify default values:

AE priority	Setting
Client priority	Key: CLIENT_PRIORITY Priority of the client
Task priority	Key: TASK_PRIORITY Default priority for all the objects of a client You can also specify a priority in the AE Priority property on the Attributes Page of an object. The priority applies to that particular object only and overrules the entry made in TASK_PRIORITY. The default here is 0, which means that the priority defined in the TASK_PRIORITY key applies.

AE priority

Setting

Client priority

Key: CLIENT_PRIORITY

Priority of the client

Task priority

Key: TASK_PRIORITY

Default priority for all the objects of a client

You can also specify a priority in the AE Priority property on the Attributes Page of an object. The priority applies to that particular object only and overrules the entry made in TASK_PRIORITY. The default here is 0, which means that the priority defined in the TASK_PRIORITY key applies.

Client Priority

An Automation Engine system consists of the system client 0000 and up to 9999 user-defined clients.

The Automation Engine processes all messages sent by those clients, with the client priority determining the order in which they are processed. Clients of a higher priority are always given priority to clients of a lower priority, regardless of the order in which the messages were originally sent. The First-In-First-Out principle applies when there are two clients with the same priority. The message arriving first is processed first.

Highest priority: 200
Lowest priority: 255
Default value: 200

Task Priority

Objects are processed in queues based on their priority. A Client variable that can be set by administrator users defines the default priority for tasks within in a Client (TASK_PRIORITY key of the UC_CLIENT_SETTINGS variable).

Here you specify the priority you assign to this object, which overrides the default set by your administrator in the Client variable.

Allowed values: 0 to 255
1 = highest priority
255 = lowest priotiy
0 = the value specified in the TASK_PRIORITY key of the UC_CLIENT_SETTINGS variable applies

If no default priority is specified, or if the variable is not available in the Client, the priority is 200.

For tasks of the same priority, the "First in/first out" principle applies.