Defining Batch Controls

The system is delivered with all necessary batch controls. Implementations may define default values for parameters. In addition, implementations may define their own background processes.

To view background processes, open Admin > System > Batch Control. 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. The base values provided are as follows:

Note: Additional categories may be introduced by your specific product.
If the batch process is Timed, then the following fields are available:

Use Program Type to define if the batch process program is written in Java or Java (Converted), meaning that the program has been converted into Java.

Note: Java (Converted) program types are not applicable to all products.

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

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 Java docs viewer.

Level of Service shows the output of the level of service algorithm for the batch control. It shows the level of service lookup value along with a message indicating the reason for the output value. Note that if no level of service algorithm is found, then the value Disabled is shown with a message indicating that no algorithm is provided for this batch control.

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 the Batch 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: 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 by the background process program.

Description. A description of the parameter.

Detailed Description. A more detailed description of the parameter.

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

Parameter Value. The default value, if applicable. Note that an implementation may define a default value for base provided batch controls.

Security. Indicates whether the system should Encrypt the parameter value or not. A value of Encrypt means that the parameter value is stored in the database and written to the log files using encryption. In addition, the parameter is written to the log files with asterisks. The setting applies to values entered here as well as in the online Batch Submission. If there is no need to secure the parameter value, use the default setting of None.

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.