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Construct Working Units in DPF Director

You create and edit working units in the working unit view of DPF Director. Each working unit opens in a separate tab.

Here you see the DPF Director with the (1) working unit tree on the left, (2) the properties of the selected working unit on the right and (3) tabs for each opened working unit on the top.

Screenshot of DPF Director showing the working unit tree on the left, the properties of the selected working unit on the right and tabs for each opened working unit on the top.

The configurations of working units and processes are saved as XML files in the server\dpf\templates directory.

Undo

When editing processes and working units in DPF Director, it is not possible to undo changes! However, you can exit the process or working unit view without saving the changes.

The DPF server copies the configuration files to a backup file with the current date and the .bak extension whenever the configuration files are changed. In the case of emergency, copy these backup files to the original names and restart the DPF system.

Properties of a Working Unit

The following properties can be set for a working unit:

Codepage

Codepage specifies the codepage valid for the working unit.

Available values: Enumeration

  • UTF8

    The Unicode code page is used.

  • ISO-8859-1

    The Latin-1 code page is used.

Command

Command specifies the external script called in the working unit.

Fullname

Fullname specifies a short description of the working unit.

Ignoreexitcode

Ignoreexitcode specifies if the return code of the external script will be evaluated. Independent of this setting, the return code is always set as ExitCode parameter.

Internalname

Internalname specifies the internal name of the working unit. The internal name is used as default for the name of the external script in Command and the description in Name.

Loglevel

Loglevel specifies the log level for the working unit.

Available values: Enumeration

  • LOG_OFF or OFF

    No log messages

  • LOG_RUN or R

    Only start and stop messages; the identifier of these messages is [R].

  • LOG_FATAL or F

    LOG_RUN and fatal error messages; the identifier of these messages is [F].

  • LOG_ERROR or E

    LOG_FATAL and all errors; the identifier of these messages is [E].

  • LOG_WARN or W

    LOG_ERROR and all warnings; the identifier of these messages is [W].

  • LOG_INFO or I

    LOG_WARN and info messages; the identifier of the messages is [I].

  • LOG_DEBUG or D

    LOG_INFO and debug messages; the identifier of these messages is [D].

  • LOG_TRACE or T

    LOG_DEBUG and trace messages; the identifier of these messages is [T].

Large file

With LOG_TRACE, the log files become very large and, therefore, slow down the system very much. For this reason, activate this log level only very selectively and deactivate it again as soon as possible!

Logname specifies the base name of the log file for working unit.

Available values: String

  • <basename>

    The <basename>.log log file will be written.

  • ""

    No log file will be written.

Hint - best practice

In practice, specifying the Logname here is not necessary, cause the information is contained in the job-specific log file as well.

Logstdout

Logstdout specifies if the output of the external script is written into the log file in any case. For this, the log level must be at least LOG_INFO. If Logstdout is deactivated, the output is only written to the log file if the log level has been set to LOG_DEBUG.

Nodenames

Nodenames specifies the servers where the working unit is running.

Available values: String

  • <server1> <server2> ... <servern>

    Server where the working unit is running.

Project

Project specifies the project where you want to create the working unit.

Available values: String

Default: Project selected when opening the context menu in the working unit tree

Threads

Threads specifies the number of jobs that can be processed by the working unit at the same time.

Available values: Integer

Type

Type specifies the type of the working unit and by that the service that will manage its call.

Available values: Enumeration

  • WUJavaCall

    The working unit calls a Java script.

  • WURestCall

    The working unit calls the REST API.

  • WUSendback

    Working unit for sendback files.

  • WUSystemCall

    The working unit calls an external script.

  • WUWait

    The working unit waits for the response of a another system without blocking other jobs.

Timeout

Timeout specifies the number of seconds after which DPF Working Unit Manager cancels the processing in the working unit for the job.

Available values: Integer

  • 0

    No timeout is active for the working unit.

  • <n>

    After <n> seconds, DPF Working Unit Manager cancels the processing in the working unit.

Version

Version specifies the version of the working unit.

Create a Working Unit

This is how you create a new working unit:

  1. In the working unit tree, open the context menu and select New or click in the window on the right. A dialog is opened.

    Screenshot of DPF Director showing the dialog to create an new working unit

  2. Enter the properties of the working unit.

    Literature

    For information about properties and their values refer to Properties of a Working Unit.

  3. Click OK.

    The new working unit appears in the specified project folder in the working unit result tree. If you specified a new project, the project folder will be created.

Edit the Properties of a Working Unit

When creating a working unit, you specify the properties of the working unit. If desired, you can change these later.

This is how you edit the properties of a working unit:

  1. Select the working unit in the working unit tree.

  2. At the bottom of the window on the right, change to the General tab. The general settings of the working unit are displayed.

    Screenshot of DPF Director showing the general settings of a working unit

  3. Change the properties.

    Literature

    For information about properties and their values refer to Properties of a Working Unit.

  4. Save the settings by clicking save icon.

    The properties of the working unit are changed.

Edit the Input Parameters of a Working Unit

This is how you edit the input parameters of a working unit:

  1. Select the working unit in the working unit tree.

  2. At the bottom of the window on the right, change to the Input tab. The input parameters of the working unit are displayed.

    Screenshot of DPF Director showing the input parameters of a working unit

  3. Change the input parameters.

    • Key: Specify the name of the input parameter.
    • Value: Specify the default of the input parameter.

    • Type: Choose the type of the parameter.

      • Text: The input parameter is a text field.
      • Select: For the input parameter, preset values can be chosen.
      • Combo: For the input parameter, preset values can be chosen or a free text can be entered.
      • Check: The input parameter can be activated or deactivated by clicking a checkbox.

    • Range: For input parameters of the Select and Combo type, you specify values that the input parameter can have. For input parameters of the Check type, you specify which values are passed on in the activated and deactivated status.

    • Mandatory: Activate the checkbox if the input parameters must be specified.
    • Description: Specify a short description of the input parameter. This description appears as tooltip when the working unit is integrated into a process.

  4. Save the settings by clicking save icon.

    The input parameters of the working unit are changed.

Edit the External Script of a Working Unit

This is how you edit the external script of a working unit:

  1. Select the working unit in the working unit tree.

  2. At the bottom of the window on the right, change to the Script tab. The external script of the working unit is displayed.

    Screenshot of DPF Director showing the script of a working unit

    Hint - empty script

    The Script tab is empty, if the script does not yet exist when creating a working unit. In this case, copy the script of another working unit:

    1. Open the Script tab of another working unit.
    2. Select the complete script by pressing Ctrl+A.
    3. Copy it by pressing Ctrl+C and insert it into the Script tab of the new working unit by pressing Ctrl+V.

  3. Change the working unit script.

    Hint - editor

    If you want to make major modifications in the script and to use a more capable editor for this, copy the script into this editor and copy it back to the Script tab after finishing the modifications.

  4. Save the settings by clicking save icon.

    The script of the working unit is changed.

Edit the Environment Variables of a Working Unit

This is how you edit the environment variables of a working unit:

  1. Select the working unit in the working unit tree.

  2. At the bottom of the window on the right, change to the Environments tab. The environment variables of the working unit are displayed.

    Screenshot of DPF Director showing the environment variables of a working unit

  3. Change the environment variables of the working unit.

  4. Save the settings by clicking save icon.

    The environment variables of the working unit are changed. The environment variables are valid for calling Command.

Move a Working Unit to Another Project

This is how you move a working unit to another project:

  1. Select the working unit in the working unit tree.
  2. At the bottom of the window on the right, change to the General tab.
  3. Select the other project in Project or, if it is a new project, specify the project name here.

  4. Save the settings by clicking save icon.

    The working unit appears in the specified project in the working unit tree. If you specified a new project, the project folder will be created.

Limit the Number of Concurrent Running Working Unit Threads

Among others, Working units contain conversions by external scripts. In order to ensure that license conditions are kept, for example if only three conversion licenses are available, restrict the number of jobs concurrently processed for the working unit running this conversion.

This is how you specify the number of jobs concurrently processed by a working unit:

  1. Select the working unit in the working unit tree.
  2. At the bottom of the window on the right, change to the General tab.
  3. Enter the maximum of licenses in Threads.

  4. Save the settings by clicking save icon.

    This limit ensures that only the specified number of jobs are converted in the DPF system at the same time. Arriving jobs are queued. As soon as one of the threads becomes idle, it takes the next jobs from the queue and starts the conversion.

Activate Concurrently Running Working Unit Threads

By default, DPF Working Unit Manager starts only one thread for each working unit, that means that the jobs are not processed concurrently. If a working unit is identified as bottle neck in the process and this is not due to missing resources, the performance might be better if jobs are processed concurrently.

This is how you specify the number of jobs concurrently processed by a working unit:

  1. Select the working unit in the working unit tree.
  2. At the bottom of the window on the right, change to the General tab.
  3. In Threads, how many jobs the working unit can process at a time.

  4. Save the settings by clicking save icon.

    DPF Working Unit Manager starts multiple threads of this working unit so that multiple jobs can be processed at the same time and the working unit's queue will be processed faster.

Change the Icon Displayed In DPF Tracker

In the job list in DPF Tracker, icons are displayed in the Status column. These icons depend either on the working unit or on the job status.

In delivery, some icons for different job states and for some working units are included. The icons are formatted as PNG and are located in the server\dpf\filepool directory. For older Web browsers, GIF files are supported.

This is how you add a PNG file as icon for a working unit:

  1. Copy the PNG file into the server\dpf\filepool directory.

  2. Rename the PNG file as the name of the working unit and add .png as extension.

    DPF Tracker shows the icon when the working unit is processing a job.

Example of an icon for the stamptiff working unit

server\dpf\filepool\stamptiff.png

Suppress the Return Code of a Working Unit

A job processed by a working unit with a return code other than 0 is stored as erroneous by default. However, this might be not wanted if the process handles the error case itself.

This is how you suppress the return code of a working unit:

  1. Select the working unit in the working unit tree.
  2. At the bottom of the window on the right, change to the General tab.
  3. Activate Ignoreexitcode.

  4. Save the settings by clicking save icon.

    A job processed by a working unit with a return code other than 0 is not stored as erroneous. However, the ExitCode parameter is set and can be evaluated by the process.

    Hint - timeout

    If you activate Ignoreexitcode and set Timeout to a value greater than 0, the job returns 553648141 in the case of a timeout and is not stored as erroneous.

Send Back a Directory Tree

The sendback working unit can receive a directory as target and pass all files back to DPF Batch Client. DPF Batch Client creates the same directory tree in the target directory.

This is how you return a directory tree:

  1. In the working unit tree, select the sendback working unit, that means the Send file(s) back to dpfclient item.
  2. At the bottom of the window on the right, change to the Input tab.
  3. In the Source parameter, specify the source directory.

  4. In the TargetDir parameter, specify the target directory with absolute or relative path or "" to create the directory in the current directory.

    Hint - target directory

    To set the TargetDir to the name of the source directory, add a modify module with TargetDir = c:\temp%Source.fileName% for evaluating and appending the name of the subdirectory.

    Hint - empty directories

    Empty subdirectories are not passed or created.

  5. Save the settings by clicking save icon.

Create a Remote Working Unit

Some tasks, such as conversion by means of the CAD system, only can be purpose executed on specific servers. For this, you create a remote working unit which is executed on these servers and is assigned by the DPF system.

This is how you create a remote working unit:

  1. In DPF Director in the working unit tree, select the working unit that is to work as remote working unit.
  2. At the bottom of the window on the right, change to the General tab.
  3. In Nodenames, specify a variable, for example, %REMOTENODES%.
  4. Save the settings by clicking save icon.

  5. Configure the variable specified above (%REMOTENODES% in the example) in the respective element in the server\dpf\templates\main.customer.xml configuration file:

    xml hl_lines="5,7-9" <DPF> <config> <nodenames> <node NAME="dpf_server"> <REMOTENODES> remote_server1 remote_server2 ... </REMOTENODES> <DEFAULTNODE> %DB_HOST% </DEFAULTNODE> </node> </nodenames> </config> </DPF>

  6. Check if the explicit name of the PostgreSQL database server has been specified in server\postgresql\conf\postgresql.cfg and not localhost, for example:

    [postgresql]
PGHOST = VAPPAG12
PGPORT = 7128

  7. In server\postgresql\conf\hba_dpf.cfg, permit the servers where the remote working unit is to be running to access the PostgreSQL database.

    The remote working unit are started on the specified servers.

    Hint - all servers

    If many servers are involved, you can allow the access for all servers, too. For this, start sysinit and answer Y to the correspondent question for the database configuration.

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