Job Group (JOBG)

A Job Group is a container for other objects. It helps you manage the execution of the individual objects it contains. As a developer and object designer, you use Job Groups to assemble individual objects that you want to execute collectively, either simultaneously or one after another. Job Groups can be stand-alone objects that you execute manually or you can insert them in Schedules or Workflows.

The objects included in a Job Group are flagged as belonging to a group. When you execute the group, it is displayed in the Process Monitoring perspective and its status is Active. The individual objects in the group are in Registered status first, and then Active as soon as they are executed.

When you execute objects that belong to a group from outside that group, their status remains as Registered. They are not executed unless the group is started as well.

Exception: When the individual objects are started by a Workflow, Schedule or a Recurring Task (C_PERIOD), the Job Group setting in the object definition is ignored.

Job Groups do not have object-specific pages since they are mere containers for other objects.

You assign a Job to a Job Group on the Attributes page of the Job.

A Job Group definition is made up of the following pages:

• Standard pages that are always available, no matter what type of object you are defining:
• General Page
• Version Management Page
• Documentation Page
• Additional pages that are always available for executable objects:
• Process Pages
• Attributes Page
• Variables Page
• Prompt Sets Page
• Rollback Page
• The object-specific page described here.

Execution Sequence of the Jobs in the Group

Specify the number of Jobs that the group can execute simultaneously in the Runtime Parameters section on the Attributes Page of the Job Group definition:

• 1 is the default. It means that only one task can be started at a time, therefore the Jobs within the group start one after the other.

  Tasks that are being executed within a group are flagged as C_HOSTG. This status is displayed in the Type column on the Process Monitoring perspective only as long as the task is being processed.

  Important! The sequence in which the Jobs are started is not controlled by the group but by the Automation Engine Priority specified in the individual object definitions.

• >1 means that more than one Job can be executed at the same time

  Let's suppose that you have created a group to which you have assigned 10 objects. Selecting 8 here means that when you execute the group and it is in Active status, 8 tasks will be Active as well whereas 2 remain in Registered status. As soon as a task is finished, task number 9 changes to Active, and so on.

  The system decides which tasks is the next based on its AE priority and on the FIFO principle.

• If you leave this field empty, there is no limit to the number of objects that will be executed simultaneously with this Job Group.

Next Steps

• Execute the object.
  You can execute Job Group objects in the following ways:

• Include Job Group objects in Schedules (JSCH) to execute them automatically at predefined times and/or intervals.

• Insert Job Group objects in Workflows (see Workflows (JOBP)).

• Manually execute, restart or stop Job Group objects. For more information, see Executing Events.

• Monitor the Job Group.
  Immediately after executing the object you can start monitoring it. Right-click it to select Monitoring and open the pre-filtered list of tasks to display this one. For more information, see Show in Process Monitoring. In the Process Monitoring perspective you can then follow their progress and access the reports and statistical information associated to them. For more information, see Working with Tasks. The Job Group Monitor provides detailed information on the processing status of the individual jobs and access the functions available for them. For more information, see Monitoring Job Groups