7.4

Input Tasks
Input tasks are the starting point to any process and determine what file this process will being with. Each process must begin
with an input tasks, and although a given process may have multiple input tasks, no task can have more than one initial input
task.
Initial Input Tasks
Initial input tasks are always at the beginning of a process and are always triggered when the process starts. The process
itself may start on a schedule or poll at regular intervals, which means the initial input task only runs whenever the process is
set to run. For more information about what happens outside of the process scheduled times and to learn how to set the sched-
ule, see Access Process Properties.
If an error occurs during an initial input task, the On Error tab is never triggered. See Using the On Error tab.
Input tasks may either poll a specific location, or await for jobs to be sent to a specific PlanetPress Workflow Service. It is not
recommended to have two initial input tasks capturing the same input location, for the following reasons:
l It is a "hit and miss"to know which of the two tasks will pick up the file. This is an issue if the two processes are dif-
ferent.
l One of the processes may process a file quicker than another and finish first, which may be an issue if the processing
relies on FIFO(First In, First Out).
l One process may error out as it's trying to capture an input that's currently being read by another one. This causes
issues if the process is on a schedule and only runs once per period.
It is important to note that initial input tasks processes files one at a time, and will return to the input task once the current file
has finished processing. Each time it returns to the input task, it again only captures one single file. It does this until there are
no more files in the folder and will also capture any new file that were added during the time it processed other files. Once no
more files are found, it stops processing until it is scheduled to run again.
This is an important consideration when scheduling a task, as the Folder Capture will keep capturing files as long as new files
are added, even if it means continuing to capture and process outside its scheduled time. It is also important that while the
Folder Capture input task is processing files it keeps a copy of each file in a temporary folder, and will not delete any of these
files until it has finished processing all of them. This may cause issues with running out of disk space.
Secondary Input Tasks
Secondary input tasks are placed in the process like an action task would and will replace the job file in the process with the file
they retrieve. Since they are part of the process, they can use data from previous tasks to pull data from a variable location.
Secondary inputs do not follow a separate schedule from the process - they are automatically run when the process triggers
them.
Secondary Input Task Considerations:
l If your initial input task does not start, either because there is no data to capture or because the process is out of its
schedule, any secondary input task will not run either.
l Secondary input tasks replace both the job file and the job info variables. They do not change local and global var-
iables.