How to add a Child Task¶
A Task Step can be configured to execute another Task. In this way, tasks can be chained together to provide a sequence of tasks to be executed.
A Child Task is added to a Parent Task by adding a Task Step of type Execute Task.
Add a Task Step from the Task Steps grid. by clicking Add New Task Step.
(See Task Step for more details on adding steps).
After clicking on the Add button, the new Task Step will be displayed in the grid.
Click on the Edit button to edit the Task Step.
Enter the following details:
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Executed Task | Choose the task to be executed from the drop down. |
| Delay | Enter the delay (in seconds) when the Task should be executed. The delay is relative the execution time of the Parent Task.> E.g. If the Parent Task is executing on Monday at 09:00am and the Child Task delay is set to 3,600 then the Child Task will execute on Monday at 10:00am |
Tip
For no delay, enter a Delay of 0 (zero)
Ordinals¶
Task Steps have an ordinal, that controls the order of execution. When no delay is set, the Child Task will be executed immediately as part of the Task Step, respecting the ordinal.
However, when a delay is set, the ordinal controls when the Child Task is scheduled, not executed.
Examples¶
Let's consider 2 examples that are only different in the order of execution:
We have 2 Task Steps executed in the order shown:
- Step A takes 10 minutes to execute
- Step B executes a Child task with a 5-minute delay
This means, that we first execute A, then schedule the child task to be executed 5 minutes later. So the Child task is being executed 15 minutes after the Task was initially triggered.
For the second example, we have the same 2 Task Steps executed in the opposite order:
- Step B executes a Child task with a 5-minute delay
- Step A takes 10 minutes to execute
In this case, we first schedule the Child task in Step B to run 5 minutes after the trigger, then the execution of A starts immediately. In this way Step A is started first, then 5 minutes later the Child Task is executed.
Note
It can happen, that the Tasks are not executed in parallel. In the above example, this means, that even though the Child Task is scheduled to run 5 minutes after the trigger, it will only be executed when Step B finishes 10 minutes after the trigger.