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xFusion Scheduler helps you
schedule jobs to be run either at specific time intervals or on other events such as directory file changes. It is currently free for existing
xFusion customers and can be downloaded from the Customer Interaction Center.
xFusion Scheduler consists of two components:
- xFusion Scheduler Service – A Windows NT service that processes the scheduled jobs
- xFusion Scheduler Administrator – A graphical user interface (GUI) to manage the scheduled jobs
As soon as the installation is complete, the scheduler service starts running automatically.
The user can connect to the service and manage jobs using xFusion Scheduler Administrator.
Managing jobs include creating new jobs, editing existing jobs,
deleting jobs and monitoring the status of running jobs.
A job is a configuration of one event and its associated action.
Optionally, a job can also have one or more post-actions.
For example, you can configure a timer event to occur every 15 minutes apart
and execute xFusion export.exe application.
I will walk you through setting up this job.
The xFusion package that we will use with export.exe will generate a “Customer Orders” report in pdf
file format. To make it interesting, we will also create a post-action to send an email
at the end of each export. Essentially, we are automating generation and mailing of a report on
a 15-minute interval.
Step-by-step example
- If you are not already connected to a computer, right-mouse click on the “Computer”
item in the left pane and select “Add Computer” menu item. Enter the dns name of the computer and the port number.
You can also specify an IP address instead of the dns name of the computer.
- To create a new job, right mouse click on the status tab and select the Add option.
- Enter the job identification and job description.
The job identification must be unique for jobs running on the selected computer.
- From the list of registered event types, select the timer event.
- Specify the time interval in seconds between each run.
In our case, we will set the job to run every 15 minutes.
- The next step is to define the action when the event occurs.
From the list of possible actions, select ”Process” as the action.
This allows us to run any Windows executable.
- For our Windows executable, select the export utility available with xFusion Studio.
Specify the xFusion package as an argument.
You can optionally specify a time-out interval.
If export.exe does not finish execution within this timeout interval,
the scheduler will ensure that the process is killed.
- The next step is to define one or more post-action. Each post-action is associated
with a return value from the action. In our case, when export.exe completes successfully,
it will return a value 0. We will handle this case to automate emailing the pdf
file.
Click on Specify... and enter the value “0.”
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Next step is to define the action taken if the export utility returns "0". Here, we will set it up to send an email
If needed, you can define additional post-actions. For example, if export.exe fails, it returns a value 1. Use can set up a post-action for this value to send an error-message email.
Click Finish to complete the job.
To get the latest status of the job, you can right-mouse click and select the Refresh option
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