Job Steps¶
A job's steps are the ordered list of actions each site works through. Every step comes from a fixed set of step types, each an operation a site already has. Each step can therefore be checked at the site against the person's role, reported on, and described exactly to the approver. There is no step that runs a script.
Step Types¶
| Step | What it does | Where it runs |
|---|---|---|
| Import the file | Imports the job's configuration file at the site | At the site |
| Start channels | Starts stopped or errored channels | At the site |
| Stop channels | Stops running, paused or errored channels | At the site |
| Pause channels | Pauses running channels | At the site |
| Resume channels | Resumes paused channels | At the site |
| Restart channels | Restarts running or errored channels | At the site |
| Check channels | Checks the channels against the chosen checks, and fails the site when one fails | At the site |
| Wait | Waits a number of seconds before the site's next step | At the Hub |
| Wait until a time | Waits until a clock time in the site's own time zone | At the Hub |
| Checkpoint | Holds every site at this step until the preparer or the approver continues the job | At the Hub |
A job has at most one import step. Steps that run at the site are each sent as their own signed statement; waits and checkpoints are kept at the Hub and never sent to a site.
The pages for each kind of step describe their fields and what the site does:
- Job Import Step covers the import, its options, its zone overrides and what a site refuses before it writes anything.
- Job Channel Steps covers starting, stopping, pausing, resuming and restarting channels.
- Job Check Step covers the five checks and the step a "since" check counts from.
- Job Waits and Checkpoints covers the three steps the Hub keeps.
Adding and Editing a Step¶
On the Steps tab of the job editor, click Add to open the Add Step dialog, or select a step and click Edit to open it in the Edit Step dialog.
Choose the step type in Step. The dialog then shows only that type's fields, with a sentence under Step on what the step does at each site.
Fill in the fields and click OK. The step goes back to the editor; nothing is saved until the draft is saved. Cancel closes the dialog without changing the step.
The dialog checks the fields it shows before it closes, and refuses:
- A channel line without a "/", or a zone override line without an "=".
- A check step with no checks, or a "since" check with no Since Step.
- A wait of less than 1 second, or a time that is not HH:mm from 00:00 to 23:59.
Whether the whole list can be submitted is checked once the draft is saved, and again when it is submitted; see Preparing a Job.
Channels¶
Channel and check steps act on channels. By default they act on the channels the job's import affected at each site, which is why such a step needs an earlier import step unless it names its channels.
To name channels instead, enter them in Channels, one per line, as zone/channel. Each line is split at its first "/", so a zone whose name holds "/" cannot be named here. A named channel that a site does not have fails the step at that site.
When the step names its channels, it acts on those channels at every site, whatever the import did. See Job Import Step for which channels count as affected.
Error Counts From the First Step¶
Every step sent to a site returns the error-queue count of each channel at that site in a zone the preparer may view there, read before the step acts. The Hub keeps the counts the first step returned as the site's baseline, which a later check step compares against; see Job Check Step.