Authoring items
The Author module is where definitions are created and changed. This page describes the behaviour common to all of its editors; the individual pages cover the fields of each object type.
Contents
Create or edit
Sections of the Author module
| Section | Contents |
|---|---|
| Tasks | The task hierarchy — scenarios, groups and tasks |
| Parameters | User-defined parameters |
| Connections | Connections |
| Notifications | Notification definitions, referred to elsewhere as operators |
| Tags | Tags |
| Users | User accounts |
| Settings | System settings |
| Calendar | Non-working days; see Calendar |
All sections except Tasks require the Admin role.
The task hierarchy
Scenarios, groups and tasks are shown as a tree, because a group belongs to exactly one scenario and a task to exactly one group.
- The three buttons in the header create a new scenario, group or task.
- The filter box searches by name or property, not name alone, so it will also find tasks by something in their definition. When a filter is active, the number of matching tasks, groups and scenarios is shown beneath it.
- Hide disabled items removes disabled objects from the tree. This is a display preference, not a change to the definitions.
Other object types are shown as a simple list with a create button, a name filter and pagination.
Editing
Selecting an item opens its form on the right.
- Save is disabled until the form has been changed and is valid. Hovering over it shows the outstanding validation errors.
- Cancel discards the changes.
- Some controls are not part of Save. Adding or removing a tag, a dependency or a notification takes effect immediately.
Naming rules
All objects share the same rules: maximum 100 characters, and only letters, digits, space and the characters _, - and /. Names must be unique — for a Task, unique within its group; for everything else, unique overall.
History
Most editors have a History button showing the revisions of that object — useful for establishing what changed, and when, after a run behaves unexpectedly.
Deleting
The Delete button is disabled when the object is still in use. The tooltip explains why. Remove the references first — for example reassign or delete the tasks in a group before deleting the group.
Check-out locks
An object being edited is checked out, which prevents two people changing it at once. A lock icon appears in the tree and in the lists: green where the lock is yours, grey where it belongs to another user. A lock that has been left behind can be released.
GUI noinsert mode
An installation can be configured in GUI noinsert mode, in which definitions cannot be saved through the interface at all. Save is disabled and the tooltip explains why. This is used where definitions are deployed from a controlled source rather than edited directly in the environment — typically production. If Save appears permanently disabled on a valid form, check this first.
Utilities
- Search — fulltext search across all metadata. The quickest way to find every task referring to a particular table or procedure.
- Check cyclic dependencies — scans for dependency cycles. Worth running after any significant change to dependencies, because a cycle introduced after a processing has been planned is not detected automatically; see Dependencies.
- Calculate reference run — recomputes the reference runtimes used for estimates and milestone tracking. Run it after a change that materially alters how long processing takes, otherwise estimates continue to be based on the old profile. See Analysing processing performance.
Order of creation
Objects depend on one another, so a new installation is set up in this order:
- Connection — required by both scenarios and tasks
- Scenario
- Group — belongs to a scenario
- Task — belongs to a group and uses a connection
Parameters, tags and notifications can be created at any point, but must exist before they can be referenced.
