Chain Definition Editor Reference

This topic provides reference information about the Chain Definition Editor user interface. For more information about working with Chain Definitions, see About Chain Definitions and Working with Chain Definitions. For instructions on how to create a simple Chain Definition, see Creating a Basic Chain Definition.

General Navigation

To zoom in and out, use the scroll wheel on your mouse.

To zoom to a particular area, Ctrl+drag a rectangle around that area.

You can drag and drop Steps and Chain Processes in the diagram. To duplicate a Step, Ctrl+drag the Step to the desired location.

When you highlight a Step or Chain Process, the full path of the selected element displays at the top. You can navigate to any part of the path by clicking it.

Icons

  • Add a Chain Process.
  • Add a precondition.
  • Add a Status Handler.
  • Edit scheduling parameters.
  • Specify parameter mappings.
  • Specify process monitors to update.
  • Convert Chain Process into a sub-Chain.
  • Before a Chain Process, this icon symbolizes a wait event.
  • After a Chain Process, this icon symbolizes a raise event.

Request Restart by Default

The Request restart by default setting (also known as "easy restart") lets you control what happens when a chain goes into one of the following statuses: Error, Canceled, Killed, and Unknown. When Request restart by default is turned on, to Request Restart for all new Chain Definitions created. Existing definitions that you edit are not affected by this change. Easy Restart can be toggled either with icons ( and ) on the Chain box in the diagram, or the Request restart by default checkbox on the Chain properties pane.

You can disable Easy Restart by default for future Chain Definitions by creating a /configuration/ui/JobChain/NewChainDefaultsToEasyRestart registry entry and setting its value to false.

Critical Path Control

The critical path control lets you identify the Chain Processes that take longest to run. The average runtime of the Chain is used as a baseline. The slider allows you to highlight Chain Processes that have an average runtime greater than x% of the average runtime of the Chain.

For example, assume you have a Chain with three Steps, each which has a Chain Process. The average runtime of the Chain is 10 minutes. On average, the Chain Process in Step 1 runs for 3 minutes, the Chain Process in Step 2 runs for 5 minutes, and the Chain Process in Step 3 runs for 2 minutes.

  • When the slider is below 20%, all Chain Processes will be highlighted .

  • When the slider is between 20% and 30%, Chain Processes in Steps 1 and 2 will be highlighted.

  • When the slider is between 30% and 50%, the Chain Process in Step 3 will be highlighted.

  • When the slider is above 50%, no Chain Processes will be highlighted.

Toolbar Controls

  • : Zoom in 10%.
  • : Zoom out 10%.
  • : Expand all, recursively.
  • : Collapse all, recursively.
  • : Print the Chain diagram.
  • : Display help.