Maintaining a robot task

You can change the settings of an existing robot task. The next time a robot runs the task, the new settings are used.

If any of the scripts in a task use a password, see Scripts with passwords.

Edit a task

Edit a task in the Task Designer.

Open a robot and select the task

1. Open the Robots app.
2. From the dashboard in Robots, select the tab for the appropriate robot type.
3. Click the robot that contains the task.

4. In the upper-right corner of the robot, click Production or Development to select the mode to use.

   For more information, see Development mode and production mode in Robots.

5. On the Tasks tab, select the task that you want to edit and click > Edit.

   The Task Designer opens and you can begin editing the task settings.

   If required, click Ok in the password warning. Existing passwords are automatically cleared from the task and you must enter a valid password or passwords to successfully run the task.

   Tip

   To avoid clearing passwords entered by another user, you can create a new task instead of editing an existing task. For more information, see Creating a robot task to run a script.

Select the scripts that run in the task

If required, update the selection of scripts that run in the task, or the order in which they run.

1. If you are editing a task in an ACL robot, do any of the following:

   • Under Deselected scripts, select the script or scripts that you want to include in the task.

     To use all the scripts, select Select all.

     The scripts that you select are moved into the Selected scripts list. Scripts are grouped by the TYPE that is specified in the ANALYTIC tag in a script's analytic header:

     • Import

     • Preparation

     • Analysis

     Scripts with no specified TYPE are included in the Analysis group.

     Only analytic scripts are available for selection. Auxiliary scripts are not available. To run, an auxiliary script must be called from an analytic script.

   • Under Selected scripts, deselect any script or scripts that you want to exclude from the task.

   • Within each script group, drag scripts to reorder them.

     Within each group, scripts run in the order that you create, top to bottom. Place any dependent script below the script it depends on.

     All the scripts in the Import group run before the scripts in the Preparation group, and so on.

2. If you are editing a task in a HighBond robot or a Workflow robot, make sure the script is selected.

   Currently, HighBond robots and Workflow robots support only a single script, which is selected by default.

Enter script parameter values and passwords

If required, update script parameter values or passwords.

1. For each selected script that requires parameter input, click the down arrow to expand the parameter section and enter the values for the script.

   Note

   The values that you enter for the parameters are unique to this task and are not shared across tasks.

   If you are not the author of the script and you have questions about the parameters, contact the script author for more information.

2. If you entered one or more passwords, click Share passwords if you want to allow other users to run, disable, or enable the task.
   • Share passwords is on any user with access to the robot can run, disable, or enable the task
   • Share passwords is off only you can run, disable, or enable the task

   The Share passwords setting applies to all the scripts in a task. Regardless of the setting, other users can edit the task to enter their own passwords.

   Whether shared or unshared, passwords remain masked in the Task Designer.

   For more information, see Scripts with passwords.

3. At the bottom of the page, click Continue or Save and close.

Schedule the task

If required, update the task schedule, or add or remove a schedule.

To update the task schedule

1. In the Schedule your task page, update the schedule details.

2. At the bottom of the page, click Continue or Save and close.

To add a task schedule

1. At the top of the page, select Put your task on a schedule.
2. Specify the schedule details:
   • Frequency the interval at which the task is repeatedly run
   • Starting at the time of day to start running the task, and the time zone to use

     Use your own time zone unless you want the start time to represent a different time zone.

   • Beginning on the date to start running the task
3. At the bottom of the page, click Continue or Save and close.

To remove a task schedule

1. At the top of the page, deselect Put your task on a schedule.

   The schedule details are no longer visible. They are preserved while you are in the Task Designer, or if you click Cancel and exit the Task Designer without saving your updates.

2. At the bottom of the page, click Continue or Save and close.

   The schedule details are permanently deleted if you click Save and close.

Notify users if the task does not run

If required, update the task notification, or add or remove a notification. If enabled, a notification is automatically sent if the task does not run for any of the following reasons:

• The script in the task fails

• The task is skipped

• The task is manually canceled

To update the task notification

1. In the Notify the humans page, click user names to select or deselect them.

2. At the bottom of the page, click Continue or Save and close.

To add a task notification

1. At the top of the page, select Send notifications on failure.
2. Click one or more users in the list to select them.

   Only users with sufficient permissions for the robot are available to select.

3. At the bottom of the page, click Continue or Save and close.

To remove a task notification

1. At the top of the page, deselect Send notifications on failure.

   The notification details are no longer visible. They are preserved while you are in the Task Designer, or if you click Cancel and exit the Task Designer without saving your updates.

2. At the bottom of the page, click Continue or Save and close.

   The notification details are permanently deleted if you click Save and close.

Review the settings and update the task

1. Review the settings that you have configured for the task.
2. Optional. To update a setting, click and make the required changes.
3. When you are satisfied with the configuration and ready to update the task, click Confirm and update task.

   Result The edited task is now ready to run using the new settings that you specified.

Scripts with passwords

A script in a task may require one or more passwords for accessing data sources, or for other purposes. When you create a task, you enter any required password as a parameter value for a script.

After entering a password in a task, the password owner can use the Share passwords toggle to share or unshare the password. The Share passwords setting applies globally to all passwords in all scripts in a task.

• Shared passwords any user with access to the robot can run, disable, or enable the task
• Unshared passwords only the user who entered the password can run, disable, or enable the task

Whether shared or unshared, passwords remain masked in the Task Designer. Robots provides encrypted storage of all passwords entered in tasks, and passwords remain secure throughout analytic processing.

How task passwords work

The table below explains in detail how tasks with passwords work, and how they can be edited. If you enter a task password, you are the password owner. If someone else updates the task password, they become the password owner and you are no longer the owner. Other users are any users with access to the robot containing the task.

Action	Password status	Password owner	Other users
Run, disable, or enable task	shared
	unshared
Run task sequence containing task	shared
	unshared
Edit task/edit password Other users: Editing a task automatically clears the existing password. You must enter a valid password to run the task.	shared
	unshared
Disable password sharing Disabling password sharing automatically clears the existing password. You must enter a valid password to run the task.	shared
Enable password sharing	unshared

Disable or delete a task

You have two options for removing a task in a robot:

• Disable stops any scheduled occurrences of the task while still retaining the task configuration information

  At any point, you can choose to enable the task, and resume the schedule.

• Delete permanently deletes the task and the task configuration information from the robot

Disable a task

1. Open the Robots app.
2. From the dashboard in Robots, select the tab for the appropriate robot type.
3. Select the robot that contains the task.

4. In the upper-right corner of the robot, click Production or Development to select the mode to use.

   For more information, see Development mode and production mode in Robots.

5. On the Tasks tab, select the task that you want to disable and click > Disable.

   Result the task is flagged as Disabled and does not run if scheduled, and cannot be run ad hoc.

   To re-enable the task, click > Enable.

Delete a task

1. Open the Robots app.
2. From the dashboard in Robots, select the tab for the appropriate robot type.
3. Select the robot that contains the task.

4. In the upper-right corner of the robot, click Production or Development to select the mode to use.

   For more information, see Development mode and production mode in Robots.

5. In the Tasks tab, select the task that you want to delete and click > Delete.
6. In the prompt, click Delete to confirm that you want to permanently delete the task.

   Result the task is permanently deleted. In the Task runs tab, (deleted) is appended to the task name. Task run information, any output files, and the referenced scripts are retained.