Task Management Overview

Note: Standard users do not have access to the Task functionality.

The Task management functionality allows you to track the status of your Authoring batch jobs, including MS PowerPoint exports, SPSS exports etc.

When placing requests for exports (for example SPSS), you can specify a time for when the task is to be started: Immediately, at midnight or at a specified hour.

To open the task management page - , go to the Home > Tasks menu command or click the Tasks button in the Home toolbar.

Figure 1 - Opening the Tasks page

The Tasks page has six tabs:

• Scheduled – A list of the user's pending tasks (go to Scheduled for more information).
• Executing – Task currently being run on the batch server (go to Executing for more information).
• Completed – Tasks that did finish within the specified timeframe (go to Completed for more information).
• Aborted – Tasks that for some reason did not finish within the specified timeframe (go to Aborted for more information).
• Recurring – Tasks that have been scheduled to recur at specified time intervals (go to Recurring for more information).
• Search – Here you can search for your batch job to check its status (go to Search for more information).

Click on the Task ID number in a list to go to the Task Properties overview (go to Task Properties for more information). Here is displayed information about the particular job such as the job definition, recurrence settings, parameters and the status. To edit the Recurrence pattern for the job, click the Change button on the Recurrence tab (go to Recurrence for more information).

For Completed and Aborted tasks, only the tasks run during the past 7 days will be shown. Completed and Aborted tasks that are older than 7 days are deleted.

Note: sets a limit on the time a task can run before it is aborted. This is to avoid unnecessary strain on the server if there is an error in the file. However, this may also result in heavy tasks (for example based on long Surveys) being stopped before they are completed. In the event this becomes a problem:
On-Premise users - you can ask your Forsta administrator to adjust the time limitation.
SaaS users - contact Professional Services at [e-mail] for assistance with reducing the size of the task.

• You can disable a task while it is being executed (go to Disabling a Scheduled Task for more information).
• You can be notified by a popup message on your screen when a task is completed (go to Be Notified when a Task is Completed for more information).
• Authoring users who have Administrator permission to a survey will be able to see and search for all batch tasks that have been set up for this survey.

A Survey Tasks link is displayed at the bottom of the General tab under Survey Management > Overview. Click the link to go to the Task Management page. Here are listed all batch tasks for the current survey. When searching for tasks in Task Management, you must always specify the survey number in the Survey ID field. This search parameter can be used in combination with other search parameters to refine the search.

Disabling a Schedule Task

To disable a scheduled task or abort a task that is currently running, tick the checkbox next to the task and click Disable (Abort in the Executing tab). The task is removed from the list.

Changing the Task Owner

All tasks have a specified “owner”; in most cases the user who originally created the task. However, a user’s access permission can expire or be deleted, and if a task previously created by a now-expired/deleted user attempts to run then the task will abort. In this case, the administrator has the option of changing the task’s owner.

Note: To change a task owner, the administrator must have task_admin, system_admin, system_project_admin or project_admin permission. Users with other permissions will not see the Ownership tab.

1. Go to the Home > Tasks menu command.

The Task Management page opens.

2. Select the appropriate task in one of the task list, then go to the Task Definition tab - .



Figure 2 - The Definition tab

3. Type into the Owner field the UserID of the new task owner and click Save to save the changes.

All future occurrences of the task will be run under the new owner’s credentials.

Be Notified When a Task is Complete

You can be notified when a selected task is completed, so you can for example continue to work in other applications while the task is running. To activate this, tick the checkbox next to the task and click Notify. A message will pop up on your screen when the selected task has been run.