Defining Batch Controls

The system is delivered with all necessary batch controls. If you introduce a new background process, open Admin Menu > Batch Control to define the related batch control record. Refer to Background Processing Concepts for more information.

CAUTION:

Important! If you introduce a new batch process, carefully consider its naming convention. Refer to System Data Naming Convention for more information.

Description of Page

Enter an easily recognizable Batch Process and Description for each batch process.

Owner indicates if this batch control is owned by the base package or by your implementation ( Customer Modification ). The system sets the owner to Customer Modification when you add a batch control. This information is display-only.

Use the Detailed Description to describe the functionality of the batch process in detail.

Use Batch Control Type to define the batch process as either Timed or Not Timed. A Timed batch process will be automatically initialized on a regular basis. A Not Timed process needs to be run manually or through a scheduler.

Use Batch Control Category to categorize the process for documentation purposes.

If the batch process is Timed, then the following fields are available:

Timer Interval is the number of seconds between batch process submissions.
User ID is the ID under which the batch process will run.
Email Address is the Email address to be used for notification if the batch process fails.
Timer Active allows you to temporarily switch off the timer for development or testing purposes.
Batch Language is the language associated with the batch process.

Use Program Type to define if the batch process program is written in Java or COBOL.

Note: COBOL Programs. COBOL is not supported for all products.

Use Program Name to define the program associated with your batch process:

If the Program Type is COBOL, enter the name of the COBOL program.
If the Program Type is Java, enter the Java class name.

Note: View the source. If the program is shipped with the base package, you can use the adjacent button to display the source code of this program in the source viewer or Java docs viewer.

The Last Update Timestamp, Last Update Instance and Next Batch Nbr are used for audit purposes.

Turn on Accumulate All Instances to control how this batch control is displayed in theBatch Run Tree . If checked, the run statistics (i.e., "Records Processed" and "Records in Error") for a thread are to be accumulated from all the instances of the thread. This would include the original thread instance, as well as any restarted instances. If this is not turned on, only the ending (last) thread instance's statistics are used as the thread's statistics. This may be preferred for certain types of batch processes where the accumulation would create inaccurate thread statistics, such as those that process flat files and, therefore, always start at the beginning, even in the case of a restart.

The following fields are default values that are used when a batch job is submitted for the batch control:

Use Thread Count to control whether a background process is run single threaded or in multiple parallel threads. This value defines the total number of threads that have been scheduled.
Select Trace Program Start if you want a message to be written whenever a program is started.
Select Trace SQL if you want a message to be written whenever an SQL statement is executed.
Use Override Nbr Records to Commit to define the default number of records to commit. This is used as the default value for timed jobs as well as online submission of jobs that are not timed.
Select Trace Program Exit if you want a message to be written whenever a program is exited.
Select Trace Output if you want a message to be displayed for special information logged by the background process.

For more information about these fields, see Batch Job Submission - Main

The parameter collection is used to define additional parameters required for a particular background process. The following fields should be defined for each parameter:

Sequence. Defines the relative position of the parameter.

Parameter Name. The name of the parameter as defined in System Background Processes.

Description. A description of the parameter.

Detailed Description. A more detailed description of the parameter.

Required. Indicate whether or not this is a required parameter.

Parameter Value. Enter a default value, if applicable.

Owner Indicates if this batch process is owned by the base package or by your implementation (Customer Modification). The system sets the owner to Customer Modification when you add a batch process. This information is display-only.