Dialog Processes

Dialog processes are a special form of work processes (DWP). They function in the same way as work processes but are exclusively used for UserInterface messages.

Performance can be negatively affected if the primary work process has to deal with complex queries or huge data amounts. Automic recommends converting a particular number of work processes to dialog processes. You can either do so manually in the System Overview using script elements or by defining a default value in the system-wide settings.

A server process that has a Server role cannot be converted to a dialog process. This means that the primary work process plus at least two work processes must be active before a dialog process is available.

When the last dialog process has been ended, work processes process UserInterface messages. Therefore, an AE system can also operate without dialog processes.

System Overview

The System Overview lists all server processes of the AE system. Work processes can be converted to dialog processes from this overview using the corresponding popup-menu command. This does not include the primary work process.

The symbol and type "D" identify dialog processes.

System Settings

You can also define a default value in order to control the number of work processes (WPs). This is done in the AE variable UC_SYSTEM_SETTINGS using the key WP_MIN_NUMBER. A "node name" and the minimum number of work processes must be specified in the variable's content. The exceeding number of work processes are converted to dialog processes.

Note that this does not affect the primary work process (PWP).

The name that has been selected as the "node name" must also be defined in the Automation Engine's INI file by using a parameter of the same name. Define one "node name" per computer if the Server processes have been allocated to several computers. If the same "node name" is used in several INI files, it is valid system-wide on a networked basis. The following example serves to illustrate details:

Example:

The server processes of an AE system are shared between two computers. Each computer has 3 work processes. The "node name" in the INI files of the two Automation Engines is set to "UC4GLOBAL" so that both computers have the same settings. Add the following entry to the variable UC_SYSTEM_SETTINGS in order to ensure that there are at least two work processes:

Key	Value
WP_MIN_NUMBER	UC4GLOBAL=2

One of the three work processes is converted to a dialog process if all of them are active.

If different minimum numbers of work processes are used for the two computers, the content of the variable must be adapted as shown below:

Key	Value
WP_MIN_NUMBER	UC4_1=2;UC4_2=1

Note that you must also specify the terms "UC4_1" and "UC4_2" in the Automation Engines' INI files.

Script

The script statement :SET_UC_SETTING can be used to convert a work process to a dialog process and vice versa.