Automic Workload Automation

Hello All,

I have created two promptsets, one is placed under main workflow and the other is placed under the first task of the same workflow. Ideally, the two promptsets must be shown one after the other at runtime but the second promptset is not popping up for unknown reason. In fact, it was working fine till yesterday but I don't understand why it is behaving abnormal now. 

P.S- "Request User Input" is checked in the task properties.

Later I tried with the other test workflow and the same task is placed in that. But here no issues, two promptsets are popping up. So please tell me what made it to behave like this in the first case.

Thanks,
Srujan.

without "knowing" it for sure:

* are the PRPTs defined in the Workflow itself or in the task properties - that makes a differenence.
* generate@runtime changed?

cheers, Wolfgang

FrankMuffke

- the prompt values are defined in the task properties.
- task will generate at activation time, not at run time.

My question is even though the test workflow is having the same values, it is not causing any problem, unlike the main workflow.

Thanks,
Srujan.

At execution time, only the promptsets that are attached to the highest level object will be displayed;   If you execute a workflow, only the workflow promptsets will pop up and if you run a job, then the promptsets that are attached to that job will pop up.

It is a common use-case that one would like for a workflow to prompt the customer for values that must be fed into the promptsets of a task.  We do this with a custom promptset that we attach to the workflow and we prefix its variable names with "WF_".  We then alter the task properties of the desired task to cause the WF_ variables to be passed into its promptset fields.

petwir  Thanks. I understand that but our use case is a bit different here. Let me make it clear for you all.

Having said that we have one primary promptset placed under the prompts tab of the workflow, which will make the user to select the customer in drop down list(Image attached). Then the next prompt element loads up the existing environments for the selected customer dynamically. In short,the user will apparently select the customer and its source and target environments in the first promptset. Upon submission, the workflow gets started and then the promptset of the first task in the workflow is supposed to be popped up with the respective customer environment details(DB,APP, etc). In the task properties of the task, we have used SEC_SQL variables which will take inputs of the first promptset values,run the query and gives back the desired value. The second promptset is just like "verify and submit page",just to let the user to confirm the details(read-only)and then the job gets started from thereon This has been working good as expected, but I don't understand why it started behaving different by not showing up the second promptset. Unless we don't submit the second promptset, the job will never get started. 

Hope you understand it better now and it seems like a bug based on my understanding. Because when I delete the first task in the workflow and placed it back in the same position and modified the promptset values in the task properties. Surprisingly,it started working fine after replacing the same object again.  :p Sometimes simple workarounds will do the trick. I am curious to know the reason behind it.

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https://us.v-cdn.net/5019921/uploads/editor/i3/uowmcp1nm1a1.jpg" width="894">

https://us.v-cdn.net/5019921/uploads/editor/i5/anv3qjepa5a8.jpg" width="1297">

Thanks,
Srujan.

You said; 
"Upon submission, the workflow gets started and then the promptset of the first task in the workflow is supposed to be popped up..."

Automic can not do this.  You must engineer all of your user inputs to occur at the workflow level.

When you change a prompt set object, these changes are not always reflected in the executable objects that use that prompt set. The reason for this has to do with the way prompt set information is stored. If you add a prompt set to an executable object, and then modify the default values of the prompt set in that executable object, the Automation Engine stores a copy of the prompt set in the executable object. If you later change the prompt set, any changes to the default values in the prompt set will not be reflected in the executable object. This is because the executable object has its own local overridden values for these defaults.

If you want the changes to the prompt set object to be reflected in the executable object that uses the prompt set, you must remove the prompt set from the executable object, save it the executable object, and add the prompt set back again. As far as I know, this is not documented anywhere. I figured it out through frustrating experience. :)

Pete Wirfs said:

Automic can not do this.  You must engineer all of your user inputs to occur at the workflow level.

I think Automic is capable of doing that as it worked perfect till the last week and suddenly it stopped popping up the promptset of a task in the workflow. Now it's working fine after I replaced the same task again, so my only concern here is that I will have to do the same again whenever we get this issue, which is not at all a good practice. Therefore, I would like to know the possible reason for this so that we will be careful enough to not let the error comes up in future.

Hoping that you understand our usecase and please suggest me any better ideas to do this in detail.

Michael_Lowry
We are changing the default values of the promptset at workflow level (@task properties ) and so we are able to pass those values to the called task effectively. The promptset which I have been talking about contains only  read-only values which would display all the environment details of the customer. Once we submit the promptset, the job will get the values that are displayed  in prompset and then it would publish those values to the top workflow (using :PUBLISH) such that all those values can be used anywhere in the workflow.

Thanks.
Srujan.

If you want to be 100% safe you can use the Structure - an earlier input dialog...
This can be used in every script or process tab

: BEGINREAD
: READ .....
: ENDREAD

https://docs.automic.com/documentation/WEBHELP/English/AWA/11.2/AE/11.2/All%20Guides/help.htm#ucaadk.htm?Highlight=beginread

https://docs.automic.com/documentation/WEBHELP/English/AWA/11.2/AE/11.2/All%20Guides/help.htm#ucaadx.htm

cheers, Wolfgang