File Compression Task Properties

The File Compression Task Properties window contains the settings for a job step that executes a File Compression Task.

Property Pages

General

Name for this step (optional)Optionally, specify a descriptive name for the step.Enable this stepUncheck this box to disable the step. If the step is not enabled, it will be skipped at execution.Description/NotesEnter any extended descriptive information or notes for this step.

Conditions

The Conditions page defines conditions that must be satisfied before the step is run.

Condition Criteria

The Condition Criteria determine how the conditions should be evaluated:

  • Execute only if all conditions are met. The step is only executed if all of the listed conditions are met.
  • Execute if any condition is met. The step is executed if any of the listed conditions is met.

If Conditions are not satisfied

The satisfaction options determine what adTempus should do if the conditions are not satisfied:

  • Fail the step. The step is not executed; the status is set to Failed.
  • Execute anyway. The step is executed anyway.
  • Skip the step (do not report as a failure). The step is not run, but it is not treated as a failure. The status of the step is reported as "Skipped (conditions not met)."

Conditions List

The Conditions list lists the conditions that have been defined for the step. You can add, edit, or delete conditions. See the Conditions topic for information on the available condition types.

Variables

The Variables page allows you to define Job Variables for this step. You can add new Variables, or override the values of Variables inherited from the Job. Any Variables you define or override here affect only this step of the Job.

To set Variables that apply to the entire job, use the Variables page in the Job properties.

The Job Variable list shows variables defined for the current object as well as variables inherited from a higher level. Icons next to each variable in the list convey information about their inheritance:

The variable is inherited from a higher level
The variable is inherited from a higher level and is locked (cannot be overridden)
The variable is inherited from a higher level and has been modified at this level
The variable is new at this level
The variable is inherited from a higher level and must be overridden (a value provided) at this level
The variable has been overridden (redefined) at a lower level. This icon only appears if you have analyzed variable usage (see below).

When you hove the mouse pointer over the icon for an inherited variable, adTempus will show where the variable was inherited from.

Filtering the variable list

The variable list can be filtered to:

  • Hide inherited variables (so you only see variables defined at this level)
  • Hide variables that cannot be modified (inherited variables that are locked to prevent modification)
  • Show only variables that must be overridden

Analyzing and viewing variable usage5.0

When you click Analyze variable usage, adTempus searches for all the places where the variables are used or overridden. After this analysis is complete, new columns are added to the list to show, for each variable:

  • Whether it has been overridden (redefined) at a lower level
  • A count of how many times it is referenced (used)

Clicking Show variable usage opens a new window showing all the references and overrides for the variables. This is the same window shown by the Find Variable and Function References tool.

Analyze variable usage only finds references and overrides that are "below" the current level. For example, if you are viewing the variables for a job, this will find all references and overrides within the job, or within jobs that may receive variables from this jobs (jobs run by Responses or Job Triggers). If you are viewing a group, this will find all references and overrides within groups and jobs below the selected group. That is, the tool only lists places that might be affected by changes to the variables in the list.

This tool does not show other places where the variables might be used. For example if you are viewing job A and some of the variables are also used in job B, those uses will not be listed unless there is a link between job A and job B.

To find all references to a variable:

  • If the variable is defined at the server level, use the Analyze variable usage tool from the variables list at the server level. This will show all uses everywhere in adTempus.
  • Use the Find Variable and Function References tool to find a specific variable or all variables.

Responses

The Responses page defines the actions that adTempus should take in response to events that are fired during execution of the step. You can add, edit, delete, or reorder responses.

All job steps support the events listed below. Some tasks may define additional events .

Event Description
Step Started Occurs at the beginning of the step.
Step Ended Occurs at the end of the step, regardless of the step result.
Step Failed Occurs if the step fails for any reason.
Step Restarted Occurs if the step is restarted due to a Response.
Restart Limit Exceeded Occurs if the restart limit is exceeded.
Step skipped Occurs when the step is skipped, either because conditions were not met (if the Skip... option is selected on the Conditions page) or due to a skip option specific to the task.
One or more conditions failed Occurs if one or more Conditions for the step is not satisfied.
Conditions not met within the specified time

Occurs if the job or a step within the job has been waiting for conditions for longer than the specified time.

In addition to the standard Response Events, this task defines the following special Events:

Event Description
Affected file count matches a value The number of files compressed matches the value specified.
No files affected No files were compressed.
One or more files affected At least one file was compressed.

Source

The Source page contains options for selecting the files to compress.

Location

Select the location for the source files. If the files are located on the adTempus server or another computer reachable using a standard UNC share, select Local or Network File.

If the files are located on a remote file server (such as FTP or SFTP), select the file server or create a new one. This defines the settings needed for adTempus to connect to the file server.

Source Root

The Source Root option determines how you will specify the files to include.

Specify all files/paths relative to a single directory

If you choose Specify all files/paths relative to a single directory, you will enter each file name relative to the root folder you define.

For example, suppose all the files you wish to transfer are located below the "c:\sourcefiles" directory. You would specify "c:\sourcefiles" as the source root here. In the Include Files list you would specify the files relative to that location, e.g.:

file_a.txt
file_b.txt
subdir\file_c.txt

The root directory name may include job variables.

Include all subdirectories

If you check Include all subdirectories, adTempus will search file files that match the patterns you specify in the Include Files list in the source root directory and all of its subdirectories. If you do not check this option, subdirectories will not be searched unless you include them explicitly in the Include Files list.

Specify absolute paths

If you choose Specify absolute paths, you will enter the full path for each file. From the example above, you would specify the Include Files as:

c:\sourcefiles\file_a.txt
c:\sourcefiles\file_b.txt
c:\sourcefiles\subdir\file_c.txt

If you want to store path information in the compressed archive, you must use the Specify all files/paths relative to a single directory option.

Include Files

Specify the names or patterns of the files to include.

If you selected the Specify all files/paths relative to a single directory option, each entry must be a file name only or a path relative to the source root; it cannot start with "\", "/", or a drive letter.

If you selected the Specify absolute paths option, each entry must include a full path to the file.

You can use wildcards to match file and directory names, and the names may include job variables.

When the path is on a cloud storage provider such as Amazon S3 that uses buckets, the first level of the path you specify must be the bucket name. For example, /mybucket1/inputfiles/file1.txt specifies the file "inputfiles/file1.txt" within bucket "mybucket1".

Exclude Files

Specify names or paths to exclude from the selection. You may specify full paths, partial paths, file names only, or wildcards. Job variables can be used.

Examples:

sometext
Excludes any file with "sometext" anywhere in its name or path
\sometext\
Excludes any file with "sometext" as one of the nodes in its path
*.bak
Excludes any file with file extension ".bak"
sometext
Excludes any file with "sometext" anywhere in its name or path
c:\**\backup\*.*
Recursively excludes all files in any directory named "backup" that appears anywhere below "c:\"

Delete files after they are added to the archive

Check this option to delete the source files after the archive has been created successfully.

Destination

The Destination page contains options specifying how and where the files will be compressed.

Compression Type

Select the compression standard to use.

Location

Select the location for the target files. If the target location is on the adTempus server or another computer reachable using a standard UNC share, select "Local or Network File."

If the target location is on a remote file server (such as FTP or SFTP), select the file server or create a new one. This defines the settings needed for adTempus to connect to the file server.

Compress To

Specify the name of the archive to create.

Store path information in archive

Check this option to save the relative path information for each file in the archive. This option is available only if you checked the Specify all files/paths relative to a single directory option on the Source page.

Existing Archive

Specify what adTempus should do if the target file already exists:

Make a backup of the existing file before replacing or updating it

Check this option to create a backup of the archive before replacing or updating it. This option is not available for cloud storage providers.

The backup name will be created by inserting a timestamp in the original name. For example, c:\target\myfiles.zip will be backed up to c:\target\myfiles.backup_20130501184244.zip.

Encryption

If you wish to encrypt the archive, specify the encryption type and password.

The available encryption types will depend on the compression standard being used.

For ZIP compression, the following encryption options are available:

Job Variables

This task sets the following Job Variables, which can be used by subsequent operations within the job:

Variable Description
FileOperationTask.ProcessedFileCount The number of files compressed.
FileOperationTask.ErrorMessages Contains any error messages reported by the task. If there are multiple messages, messages will be separated by a newline ("\n") character. If there are no messages, the variable will not be set.
FileOperationTask.SucceededFiles Contains a list of successfully processed files. This will be a list in the form sourcefile1,sourcefile2,sourcefile3. If no files were successfully processed, this variable will not be set.
FileOperationTask.FailedFiles Contains a list of files that failed to process. This will be a list in the form sourcefile1,sourcefile2,sourcefile3. If no files failed to process, this variable will not be set.

Related Concepts

File Compression Task