Dafne: Documentation import

2026-08-06T13:36:49Z

Documentation import

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A '''task''' is the basic unit of execution. It represents a single call — a database statement or procedure, a shell command, an ETL job, or a cloud service invocation — and is executed synchronously in its own thread.

Every task belongs to exactly one [[Group]], and through the group to exactly one [[Scenario]]. Every task has exactly one [[Connection]], through which it is executed.

A task is a '''definition'''. When a scenario is planned, each valid task produces a '''scheduled task''' — one instance of it within a [[Processing]]. The scheduled task carries the status; see [[Task and processing statuses]].

== Attributes ==

=== Identification ===
{| class="wikitable"
! Attribute !! Description
|-
| '''Name''' || Must be unique within the group. Maximum 100 characters.
|-
| '''Description''' || Free text.
|-
| '''Enabled''' || Whether the task is included when a processing is planned. A disabled task is not planned at all.
|-
| '''Group''' || The group the task belongs to.
|-
| '''Connection''' || The connection used to execute it.
|-
| '''Tags''' || Informative labels; see [[Tag]].
|}

=== Execution ===
{| class="wikitable"
! Attribute !! Description
|-
| '''Query''' || The statement or command to execute. See ''The command'' below.
|-
| '''Repeat count''' || How many further attempts are made after a failure. Default 1.
|-
| '''Repeat timeout''' || Minutes to wait between attempts. Default 10.
|-
| '''Not before''' / '''Not after''' || An optional time window within the day during which the task may run. Shown in the Info tab of the Monitor when set.
|}

=== Scheduling ===
{| class="wikitable"
! Attribute !! Description
|-
| '''Schedule type''' || Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly. Determines whether the task is included in a given processing. Only meaningful for tasks that do not run every day.
|-
| '''Weekdays''' || For weekly scheduling, the days on which the task runs.
|-
| '''Valid from''' / '''Valid to''' || The period during which the task is planned.
|-
| '''Multiday mode''' || How the task behaves when several processing dates are active at once. See below.
|-
| '''Execution mode''' || ''Workflow'' or ''Schedule'' — how the task participates in the flow.
|}

For Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly scheduling the day within the period is given as a number, with a ''reversed'' option that counts from the end of the period instead of the start. That is how "last day of the month" is expressed.

=== Prioritisation and load ===
{| class="wikitable"
! Attribute !! Description
|-
| '''Priority''' || A lower number means the task is selected earlier. Default 20.
|-
| '''Inherits priority''' || Whether the task takes the priority of a dependent task when that priority is higher. Enabled by default. Inheritance works through task dependencies only, never through group dependencies. See [[Prioritization]].
|-
| '''Weight''' || A number expressing how much load the task places on its group and connection. Default 10. See [[Resource management]].
|}

=== Dependencies ===
{| class="wikitable"
! Attribute !! Description
|-
| '''Dependencies''' || The tasks this one waits for. See [[Dependencies]].
|-
| '''Dependency mode''' || ''All dependencies'' — wait for every dependency to be satisfied. ''First dependency'' — proceed as soon as the first is satisfied. The default is ''All dependencies''.
|}

''First dependency'' mode is used where several equivalent tasks are created and it is meaningful to continue as soon as any one of them reports.

A dependency may also be '''inter-scenario''' — pointing at a task in a different scenario. Such dependencies are marked with a distinct icon in the task editor. They should be used sparingly, because they couple two planning events that were intended to be independent. See [[edit-task]].

=== Notification and monitoring ===
{| class="wikitable"
! Attribute !! Description
|-
| '''Operators''' || Who is notified when the task fails. Notification is sent only after the last automatic attempt has been exhausted. See [[Operator]].
|-
| '''Milestone''' || Marks the task as a milestone, tracked on the Dashboard. See [[Analysing processing performance]].
|-
| '''SLA time''' || The time by which the task is expected to complete.
|-
| '''Warn on max repeat''' || Report a warning when the retry count is exhausted.
|-
| '''Warning return value''' || A return value treated as a warning rather than an error. Used mainly with shell connections; see [[shell-script-connection]].
|}

== Multiday mode ==
When several processing dates are active at once, the multiday mode determines whether this task may run for more than one date at a time.

{| class="wikitable"
! Mode !! Behaviour
|-
| '''Group setting''' || Inherit the setting from the group. This is the default.
|-
| '''Parallel''' || Instances planned for different dates or iterations may run in parallel. Typical for snapshot data that does not depend on the previous day, and for multi-tenant configurations.
|-
| '''Serial''' || The task may start only once all its own instances for earlier processing dates have finished.
|-
| '''Consumed''' || As Serial, and in addition all dependent tasks — the consumers of its output — must have finished for the earlier dates. Used in producer/consumer setups, such as a transformation and historisation relationship.
|-
| '''Fully processed''' || The task may start only once the previous processings of the whole scenario are complete. The most conservative mode.
|}

Choosing a stricter mode than necessary is the most common reason a catch-up run is slower than expected. See [[Parallelism]] and [[Recovery after an outage]].

== The command ==
What belongs in the '''Query''' field depends on the connection:
* '''Database''' — a valid SQL statement. It may be a procedure call, DML or DDL. If the statement returns a result set, the data is ignored.
* '''Shell''' — the command line to execute. See [[shell-script-connection]].
* '''ODI''' — the name of the scenario or load plan to invoke. See [[etl-tool-connection]].
* '''Cloud service''' — the service-specific invocation. See [[cloud-services-connection]].

Before execution, [[Placeholders|placeholders]] in the command are replaced with their current values. The '''Query''' tab in the Monitor shows both the definition and the '''executed query''' — the text after substitution — which is the reliable way to check what was actually sent.

== Task notes ==
Notes can be recorded against a task definition and are visible from the Monitor, where the button shows how many exist. A note can later be marked as resolved. Notes are the appropriate place for operational context — a known quirk, a workaround, a reference to a ticket — that would otherwise live only in someone's memory.

== Editing and locking ==
A task can be locked for editing, which prevents two people changing the same definition at once. A lock can be released if it has been left behind.

Changes made through the assignment controls — adding or removing a tag, an operator or a dependency — take effect immediately and are not part of the Save action.

== See also ==
* [[Task and processing statuses]]
* [[Group]]
* [[Dependencies]]
* [[Placeholders]]

Task - Revision history

Dafne: Documentation import