How to Add a Run External Program Task Step

The Run External Program The Run External Program tool runs self-terminating shell executable programs including .exe or .bat for example, or any file type that is associated with such a shell executable program. Programs can either be existing programs that exhibit the right attributes or programs specially created to provide integration with proprietary protocols, systems or applications. tool does not require any global configuration; it can be immediately added to a task.

To add a new Run External Program step to an existing task:

1. Open the relevant task (if creating a new task, see How to Create a Basic Task).
2. Either:

–OR–

3. In the General tab, Name your task step and, if required, choose the data source to send to the program.
   How Do I Do This?

   The General tab is used to Name and describe (Description) this task step.

   Tip: If this task instance makes use of two or more Run External Program steps, ensure the Name used is unique for each individual step.

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   Use a Recordset — Enable this parameter if recordset data from a previous task step is required when running the external program

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   Input Recordset — Contains all available recordsets from steps previously created in the task

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   Read documents from a source — Enable this parameter if document data from a Format task step is required when running the external program.

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   Document Source — Contains all available documents from Format steps previously created in the task; note that the document format is displayed after the step name.

   For more information, go to the General tab topic.

4. Go to the Main tab and configure the external program to call.
   How Do I Do This?

   

   Click the image to view full size.

   Provide the full path and filename of the program in Select program to run. At the time of writing, using remote programs is not supported.

   Note: When defining pathnames to executables or files, ensure that the string is enclosed within double quotes, for example, "C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe". This also applies to any strings used for parameter information.

   Define any Parameters and parameter Values as required (click Add).

   Use Memory to memorise some or all of the step output for use in other task steps. This is particularly useful when the Run External Program step is called multiple times — use Memory to compare the record previously processed to the new record currently being processed to avoid duplicates.

   For more information, go to the Main tab topic.

5. Go to the Options tab and select the relevant error handling options for this task step.

   How Do I Do This?

   The Options tab allows you to define how errors in this step are handled at task runtime.

   Enabling Wait for program to finish forces the step to not complete until one of the following conditions have been met:

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   Indefinitely — The step waits until notified by the program that is has finished before continuing itself

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   for a maximum of: — Select this option to enter a maximum time period to wait

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   If the program is still running after this time, fail — If required, select this option to fail the execution after the above time period has expired

   If an error occurs, you can decide whether the step should Continue processing, or terminate the step immediately (Abort Step).

   If the step is aborted, you can choose to Continue processing onto the next step in the task, or terminate the whole task immediately (Abort Task).

   For more information, go to the Options tab topic.

6. Click  to save the task step.