Create Reusable Tasks

Use the Task Builder Wizard to create a reusable task.

You can use the wizard to define a task and attach archival information for easy retrieval in a new or existing catalog. When creating a new task, you can use the wizard to author a help message for the task, declare input and output ports with data types, define parameters, and create new data types as required.
  1. On the toolbar, click .
    The Task Builder Wizard dialog opens for you to create a new task.


    Figure 1.
  2. Enter a Task Name and the Execution Type as Automatic or Interactive.
  3. For Short Help, enter the descriptive information that you want displayed when you hover over the task block.
  4. Select the radio button to save your task into a New Catalog or an Existing Catalog.

    For a New Catalog, in the Catalog field, enter a file path. By default, a new catalog is saved to the working directory unless you specify a file path. The catalog browser automatically updates and displays the new catalog.

    For an existing catalog, click the file selector and navigate to a catalog file.

  5. Enter a Domain, Group, and Category name for your task, and then click Next. These fields let you enter information for organizing and retrieving your tasks.
  6. Enter the Number of Inputs for your task. For each input, enter a Name, select a Data Type and enter a Default Data Value as required for your task. If you need to create a new data type for your task, for the Data Type menu option, select <Create New>. In the dialog that opens, enter a name for the new data type.
    The following example shows that two inputs are defined for a task:


    Figure 2.
  7. Click Next, and then set the number of outputs for your task.
    The following example shows that one output is defined for a task:


    Figure 3.
  8. Click Next, and then set the parameters for your task:


    Figure 4.
    Note: You can edit parameters in the .tsk file.
  9. Click Next, and then select for the task to be opened in the Process Modeling window or text editor. If you select the text editor option, the wizard opens a text editor for you to edit the task.
Notepad is the default text editor, however you can specify an alternative text editor in the Preferences dialog:


Figure 5.
The following image shows the new task loaded in the Process Modeling window:


Figure 6.