11
Task Processing

Chapter summary

This chapter describes the features of the Task Processor and Task queue, and provides an overview of their use.

Who should read this chapter

You need to know the information in this chapter if you are:

• An Administrator who is in charge of monitoring and running the Task Processor

• A Budget workstation or Analyst workstation user who wants to know what happens to your data after you submit it.

List of topics

This chapter includes the following topics:

• About Task Processing

• Using the Task Processor

• Using the Task Queue

About Task Processing

Task Processor maintains the shared database

The Task Processor enables an administrator to maintain the shared database. All administrator distributions, solve definition processes, and data submissions to the shared database are routed to the Task Processor, where they wait in a queue until they are processed. This procedure:

• Enables multiple users to submit tasks simultaneously

• Gives the administrator the opportunity to monitor the processing events

Task processor configurations

The Task Processor can be set up in the following ways:

• A Task Processor workstation can be defined as part of the administrator's workstation, which gives the responsibility of updating to the administrator.

• A Task Processor can be defined as a separate workstation, which allows the administrator to continue working without being responsible for processing data submitted by users.

• A Task Processor can be defined directly on a server.

When to run the task processor

The frequency at which data is distributed by administrators and shared among users will depend on:

• The size of the company

• The number of users within the administrator's database network

To increase the efficiency of distributing and sharing data, Financial Analyzer processes all tasks using the Task Processor and tracks them using the Task queue.

Using the Task Processor

Running the Task Processor

You choose Task Processor from the Manage menu to run the Task Processor. You select the mode (background or foreground) and start the processing.

Note: You can only run the Task Processor in background mode if the Task Processor has been configured to run on the server where Express Server is located).

How tasks are processed

All tasks in the Task Processor are processed chronologically, which means that like tasks can overwrite each other, depending on the order in which each task is submitted for processing. As the administrator, you can reschedule tasks so that the more critical information is not inadvertently overwritten.

Related information

For more information about using the Task Processor, search for the following topics in the Financial Analyzer Help system:

"Running the Task Processor in Background Mode"

"Running the Task Processor in Foreground Mode"

"Stopping the Task Processor"

For information about submitting data to the shared database, refer to Chapter 10 of this guide. For information about how to control user access to information in the shared database, refer to Chapter 12 of this guide.

Using the Task Queue

Function of Task queue

When tasks are submitted and processed by the Task Processor, they appear in the Task queue.

Information you can obtain from the Task queue

For each task, the Task queue displays the following information:

• The user who initiated the task

• The task type (such as "Distribution")

• Whether the task is pending or has been processed

• When the task was submitted for processing

• If pending, when the task is scheduled to be processed

• If pending, the task's position (priority) in the queue

• If processed, the elapsed time.

• If processed, when processing was completed

Viewing tasks in the Task queue

If you are an administrator, you can view information about tasks in the Task queue that you manage. You can view the history of any task and you can view the details of Submit Data tasks.

Rescheduling tasks in the Task queue

As part of managing the task queue, you can change the scheduled start time of pending tasks. This is useful if, for example, you want to schedule a particularly large task to be processed after normal working hours. Note that you cannot reschedule Distribute Structure tasks.

Deleting tasks from the Task queue

Administrators can delete tasks from the Task queue.

Related information

For more information about the Task queue, search for the following topics in the Financial Analyzer Help system:

"Deleting Tasks from the Task Queue"

"Viewing Task in the Task Queue"

"Rescheduling Tasks in the Task Queue"