Batch processing

The Background processing screen

All of the background processes are provided by RefTracker and work in a consistent manner, however each process will provide different parameters and allow different aspects to be changed by your organisation. The following information about how to use the Background processing screen uses the Import email process as an example but is relevant to all background processes.

You can move between processes and instances of processes by selecting the process you want from the drop down in the top right of the screen. If there is more than one instance of that process the right hand box on that line will become a drop down list that allows you to choose between the instances. For example, if you have more than one email account defined and enabled in Email importing, RefTracker will have created an instance of the Import email process for each of those email accounts so that importing from each account can be separately scheduled.

You can save changes to the process and manually run them using the buttons at the bottom of each screen. The buttons that show will vary according to the Level of the process being viewed and can be any of the following:
Update – save any changes made to this screen (such as changes to the process’s Status).
Delete – delete this instance of this user defined process.
Run process now – run this process now.
Add – create another instance of this user defined process.

Four tabs display for each process:
–Overview provides a summary of what the process does, how it has been configured, when it was last run, and provides the opportunity to turn it on or off.
–Parameters allows you to customise how the process will run for you.
–Schedule is where you set how frequently the process will run.
–Process log provides a summary of all times that this process has been run over the last period defined by parameter 0.5.

To set up a process you must review all of the settings in the Overview, Parameters and Schedule tabs, so let’s look at these tabs in detail:

The Overview tab:

For user defined processes, the key attribute on this page is whether the process is enabled or disabled.
Process type: RefTracker will make available process types. Currently there are only two process types – Housekeeping and Email import, but in the future there will be more. A process type does a particular function, and instances of the process type (see Process name below) will do variations on that process.
Level: System mandatory indicates a function that is required by RefTracker and cannot be changed by you (such as Housekeeping).
System optional indicates a process that is required by RefTracker and can be configured to meet your specific needs in relation to whether it is in use and how frequently it runs. Import email is an example of this level of process.
User defined indicates a process that is optional and configurable in all respects. There are not yet any user defined processes.
Process name: This is the name of the specific instance of this process type and can be set by you for user defined processes, but is set by RefTracker for system processes. A process type can be used multiple times allowing variations on that process to be run, for example, if you have more than one email account defined in Email importing, RefTracker will automatically create a separate process of the type Import email in order to be able to bring in emails from each of those different email addresses. The Process name allows multiple instances of the Process type to be individually identified.
Descriptive note: This is a short description/explanation of what this instance of this process does. You provide this description for user defined processes and RefTracker provides it for system processes.
Status: This is where you define whether a process is to be automatically scheduled or not. System mandatory processes are always set to Enabled.
Enabled means that this process will be run automatically according to the timing specified in the Schedule tab.
Disabled means that this process is not currently being automatically run. (it can still be run on a once off manual basis using the “Run process now” button).
Average process time: This is the average amount of time in hours:minutes:second:milliseconds that this process has taken to run over the runs summarised in the Process log tab.
Next execution: This is the time at which this process is next scheduled to run. Note that the next execution is calculated by adding the Frequency period specified in the Schedule tab to the last execution date and time.
Summary of last execution: This section of the Overview tabs summarises the information that has been placed in the log tab about the last time this process was executed (if it has been run within the last parameter 0.5 period of time.

The Parameters tab:

User defined processes will provide parameters that can be set differently for each instance of that process. System processes do not have parameters that you can change.

The Schedule tab:

Use this tab to set the schedule for automatic processing of this instance of this process.
Start date: the date and time from which this process should begin running automatically.
End date or Does not expire: the date and time at which this instance of this process should stop running, or an indication that it should continue running indefinitely (tick does not expire).
Frequency: Select how frequently this instance of this process should run. Other parameters will appear according to the frequency that you choose. The minimum amount of time between runs is 5 minutes to ensure the server is not overloaded with batch processes – please take the load on the server into account when setting appropriate frequencies.
Next execution: The Frequency you select will be used to calculate the next time that this instance of the process will run by adding that information to the date and time that the instance of this process last ran. This means that if you choose to run every Monday and it last ran at 9:23pm it will run at 9:23pm on Monday. This process ensures that response times are not effected by processes being schedule to run on the hour. Where appropriate, Process parameters will allow selection of the start and end dates for data to be included so that processes can be run for specific date and time ranges without having to be run exactly at those times.

The Process log tab:

The information presented in the log tab is as follows:
Start time: date and time that the process instance started running.
End time: date and time that the process instance finished running.
Status: Whether the process instance ran successfully.
Summary: Summary of the functions performed by the process. This summary will contain different information for each instance.
Staff: The name of the staff member who ran this process if it was run manually using “Run process now”, or blank if run automatically by Batch processing.
Summary details e.g. Mail log: some processes will provide more detailed logs of the processing performed. Text in this column is hyperlinked to a display of the more detailed log – in the case of the Import email process the link takes you to the same Email importing log summary page as is provided for the process under Systems>Batch process menu> Data import/export>Email importing where the details of the email account being imported from was set up.