Managing Output Formats

Processes can produce different kinds of output, from plain text files to PDF or ZIP files. To allow the browser to use the correct application to open the output file, a MIME type needs to be specified. Formats can be attached to Chains or Process Definitions to specify the output format and MIME type.

A format describes file content types, such as text or Postscript. A format can be assigned to a Process Definition's output or log format, thus defining the extension and MIME type to use for the files. The application used to view a file depends on your browser and your browser settings.

Note: Formats should have a unique extension. Formats are looked up by extension, and the first format found is used.

To view, create, or edit formats, navigate to Definitions > Formats.

The following standard formats are provided with RunMyJobs.

Context Menu

Formats support the following context menu options.

Note: For generally applicable object context menu options, see Object Context Menu.

Mapping of Files to Formats

The system's Process Server Platform Agents will try to assign a format to every file created by the processes. For some files, RunMyJobs knows exactly what the content is because it generated the files itself (for example, the Platform Agent log file). For others, it maps the extension of the process's filename to the list of possible formats. If that fails, it uses the Default Output Format and Default Log Format attributes of the Process Definition. If those are not set, it uses PlainText or TextLog.

System process

For System process, the output is in PlainText format. The Platform Agent's error messages are in TextLog format.

SAP jobs

For SAP jobs, the job log, the application logs, and the job statistics log are in TextLog format. The default format for spool files is PlainText. If the SAP system supports XBP functionality for retrieving spool as PDF (see SAP Note 1280850 ), then the spool output of type OTF (SAP Script) is automatically converted to PDF. Other types of spool will be retrieved as PlainText. If the Default Output Format of the SAP Process Definition is set to PortableDocumentFormat, then all spool files will be in PDF.

Operating System Processes

For Operating System processes run by a Platform Agent, the Platform Agent log (stdlog.log) is in TextLog format. The process' standard error stream (stderr.log) is in the Default Log Format, or if that is not set, in TextLog format. The process's standard output stream (stdout.log) is in the Default Out Format, or else in Text format. Other files are mapped according to their extension. If this fails, the format is set to the Default Out Format, or else to Text format.

Automatic Extensions

RunMyJobs appends extensions automatically to text files and HTML files that do not already have a .txt or .html extension. You can disable this functionality by specifying one of the following:

• @autoextension=false in the Documentation field of the format
• Registry key /configuration/jcs/mail/AutoExtension/<Format_Partition>/<Format_Name>=false
• Registry key /configuration/jcs/mail/AutoExtension=false

Note that the settings are parsed in this order. The first setting found is used. If none are found, the default is true.

Character Sets

By default, RunMyJobs reads text files using the ISO-8859-1 charset. You can specify the desired charset in the MIME Type field, semicolon separated, after the MIME type.

For example, assume you have a process that generates a file in the ISO-8859-5 (Cyrillic) charset, and you want to search the output file for errors or insert the output file into an email using the Mail Definition Type. You can make sure the file's short name has a specific extension (for example, cyr), and create a format named Cyrillic with the MIME Typetext/plain;charset=ISO-8859-5 and Extensioncyr.

Note that if you want to embed the file in an email, you must also ensure that the email gets the correct charset by specifying Charset=ISO-8859-5 in the body section.

Deleting Formats

You can delete a format only if no other objects relate to it. For example, if there are still processes or Process Definitions that reference the format, the format cannot be deleted until all references have been deleted. You can see all references to the format in Related Objects in the Detail View.

Security

The privileges available in the Security tab are as follows.

For more information, see Security Tab.

Procedure

1. Navigate to Definitions > Formats.
2. Choose Refresh to see all existing formats.
3. Choose New Format to create a format.
4. Fill in the details, refer to the section below.
5. Choose Save and Close to save the format.

Format

• Name - The name of the format.
• Application - The name of the Application used to group this object.
• Description - The description of the format.
• Documentation - A comment about the format.
• Extension - The extension of files that use this format.
• MIME Type - The MIME type to use when sending this file to a web browser.

Example

Create a format for OpenDocument Text Files

1. Navigate to Definitions > Formats in the Navigation bar.
2. Choose New Format and fill in the values below.
3. Click Save & Close to save the new format and close the edit window.

Name: OpenDocumentText
Description: OpenOffice.org Writer file
Documentation: OpenOffice.org Writer file
Extension: odt
Mime Type: application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text

See Also

• Working with Process Definitions
• Creating Chain Definitions