Automic Workload Automation

Hi Guys
I am wondering how people who use automic automation write up their process\workflows and jobs so that anyone else with basic training can look at a failed job and understand what it was doing and why it failed?

I am currently writing up all the jobs i have created and found the process i am using to be laborious. Basically screen shots and notes on what the job does and each stage, currently using a shared one note with a tab for each job.

Curious to know what others are doing out there in the world.

Cheers

Hi James!

Do you use the Documentation tab on the job much?  It seems like an easy place to keep such information so that it transfers with the job.  I'm not sure it is much less work than what you are currently doing, but at least don't have to update screenshots  :D

Naming conventions can also help when organizing the purpose of objects (although, they aren't descriptive).

You can add tabs to the documentation area by modifying UC_OBJECT_DOCU in client 0000.  We've added tabs for multiple documentation purposes.  One of our tabs is for the purpose of providing job failure recovery information.  The notify object that is triggered by job failure extracts this documentation tab and appends it to the email that goes to the oncall staff, along with the runtime report attachments.

One drawback is that the software support staff can not update the UC4 documentation information themselves.  They have to ask an authorized person to update it for them.  But in those cases where this is an issue we just code a hyperlink to another documentation site.

How do I add a file that is on the network in the documentation tab?

In order to be able to do hyperlinking from documentation, you must make sure your documentation tab has been defined as "structured".  This is accomplished in the UC_OBJECT_DOCU variable in client 0000.  Those tabs that start with the @ symbol are structured and will support hyperlinks.

Then when you type http:\\string or https:\\string into the documentation tab, UC4 will automatically hyperlink the entire string.

I'm now disappointed to discover that UNC pathing (\\servername\folder\) does not seem to work.   But I guess it makes sense for the product to not assume that the documentation is always being viewed on the same network.  This has not been an issue for us because we put most documentation in Sharepoint or other web-based repositories.  And if this documentation is extracted and sent to a customer via email, our email client (MSOutlook) hyperlink's UNC pathing.

Is it possible to use variables on the Document tab? If yes, how ?

FYI if you use the syntax
file:\\servername\folder\document.ext
you should be able to open the document directly as long as you have the proper software to do it for .ext file on the local workstation where the GUI is running. The .ext is a sample, not mandatory  :)