The Task List
The Tasks list in the Process Monitoring perspective is the main working area for operators and managers. It displays the list of active and inactive tasks and provides comprehensive data on their execution. This list can contain thousands of tasks. To keep a clear overview of the tasks you have to deal with, there are various ways to restrict its number.
Take a look at About the Process Monitoring Perspective for a short description of the Process Monitoring perspective and of the list of Tasks.
This page includes the following:
View Mode
The title bar beneath the menu bar contains two buttons that allow you to switch between the two available list views:
- Flat view where all tasks are listed without indicating which tasks are parents and which ones are children.
- Hierarchical view that displays the tasks in collapsible nodes indicating the parent/child relationship between them.
Choosing the appropriate list view is important because it affects how tasks are filtered. Also, when child tasks in a Schedule object are still active although the Schedule is not (for example, after a period turnaround). You can only see the tasks that are still executing if you set the flat list view.
For more information, see:
- Setting the Appropriate List View for filtering tasks
- Special Case: A Task Is Still Running After the Period Turnaround
Which Tasks Are Displayed?
The title bar also displays the number of tasks that are shown in the list. This number varies depending on how you have configured the list:
-
You are displaying the list in hierarchical view
The number refers to the parent tasks only.
-
You are displaying the list as flat list
The number refers to both parent and children.
-
You have applied filter criteria using either the Quick Filter or the Filter
The number refers to the filtered tasks.
-
You have included deactivated tasks
The number refers to all active and inactive tasks within the time frame applied in the filter.
System Parameters for the List of Tasks
The Tasks list provides the most important task information at a glance. The following system parameters govern it:
-
COMBINED_ACTIVITIES_LIMIT
Determines the maximum number of tasks that can be displayed
Default: 500
If a filter results in more than 500 tasks, the top bar displays Tasks (500+) (flat view) or Top-Level Tasks (500+) (hierarchical view). Fine-tune your filter to reduce the number of tasks.
-
GENERIC_ACTIVITIES_LIMIT
Determines the maximum number of tasks that can be returned in requests
Default: 5000
A + after the number of tasks in the top bar indicates that a request has returned more than the maximum number of tasks that can be displayed. Use the task filter to restrict this number.
System administrators define both parameters.
Overview of the List
By default, the tasks are sorted by RunID in descending order. To change it, click on the caption of the column by which you want to sort the tasks.
The list displays the default columns. Additional columns are available but hidden. You can have them displayed by clicking the arrow button on the column header. For more information, see Working with Tables.
An arrow to the left of the task indicates that it task has sub tasks. For example, Workflows, Schedules and runtime objects display this arrow. Click it to expand the contents of the parent task and see its children. For information about runtime objects, see Cyclical (C_PERIOD) Tasks and Runtime Objects.
Right-clicking a task opens a context-menu with all the functions that you can perform on it. Many functions allow you to select multiple tasks and right-click to perform a particular function in bulk. Some of the most important functions are also accessible via button on the toolbar.
Grouping Tasks
Grouping tasks is one way of restricting the number of tasks in the list. You can group tasks using the Group By function in the Tasks pane to the left of the list. Expand the dropdown list. The available options are shortcuts to some of the filters available on the Filter pane.
You can group tasks by the following criteria:
-
Select Queue from the Group By dropdown list. All available Queues (both started and stopped) are listed on the Tasks pane. To restrict the list of tasks to only those that run in a particular Queue, select the Queue on this pane.
Activate hide stopped queues if you want to see only the queues that are started.
Right-click a Queue on this pane to open a context menu that provides the following functions:
-
Set Filter
This Queue is set as filter criterion on the Filter pane.
-
Start/Stop Queue
Stopped Queues are marked with a red square, active Queues with a green triangle.
-
Modify
This option opens the Modify Queue dialog, where you can change the following parameters:
-
Maximum Slots
Maximum number of tasks that can run in parallel in this Queue. The default value is unlimited. You can enter a value between 1 and 100000.
When an object starts, the Queue slot is reserved before any other object are checked, such as Sync objects, available resources, maximum number of parallel tasks allowed for a particular objects, agent, etc.
-
Priority
Objects are processed based on their priority. You can enter a value between 1 and 255, the default one is 200.
Important! The priority defined in the Queue object is checked before the priority defined in the task. If two tasks have the same Queue priority, the priority specified in the task ise used.
-
-
-
Agent
The list of all available Agents (both started and stopped) is displayed below on this tab. Stopped Agents are grayed out.
Activate hide stopped agents if you want to see only the Agents that are active.
Right-click an Agent to open a context menu that provides the following functions:
-
Set Filter
This Agent is set as filter criterion on the Filter pane.
-
Stop Agent
It is not possible to start inactive Agents from this pane, you can only stop active ones.
-
-
Status
This is the same as setting the status filter on the Filter pane.
-
Business Unit, Region
When configuring your system it is possible to define customizable attributes, such as business units and regions, that help organizing the company's processes and filter out tasks. For more information, see Custom Attributes.
See UC_CUSTOM_ATTRIBUTES - Grouping Criteria in Executables.
Status Bar
The status bar indicates how many tasks are on each of the available main status. It takes into account the overall tasks that are currently displayed on the list, that is, it takes into account the filter that is currently being used (if any).
It is displayed between the task header bar and the toolbar.
Refreshing the List
There are various ways to guarantee that the list of Tasks in the Process Monitoring perspective is up to date. You can refresh it manually by clicking the refresh button on the Process Monitoring toolbar. You can also predefine a refresh interval at which the list is updated automatically. For more information, see Refresh Interval.
See also: