Chaining

A Chaining job allows you to specify two or more jobs to be run in succession for each input entity of the Chaining job. Chaining jobs differ from job linking (that is, jobs having Next Job on Success and / or Next Job on Failure fields populated) in how multiple entities are processed. In job linking, all entities are processed by the first job and then the linked job is executed. Chaining jobs process entities one at a time. Each entity is processed through the chain before the next entity is processed. The Chaining job type allows you to perform basic workflows. More complex workflows can be accomplished when a Chaining job is combined with one or more Decision job types.

If the Next Job on Success or Next Job on Failure fields are defined for any jobs in Parameter 1 of the Chaining job, they will be ignored as success/failure workflows are defined as parameters in the definition of the Chaining job.

If the Next Job on Success or Next Job on Failure fields are defined at the Chaining job definition level, they will be applicable.

The following Job Parameters may be specified when defining a Chaining Job Definition:

Parameter 1 – Job Chain (Required): List of Job Definition IDs to be run in succession. This value is not case sensitive. Jobs specified in a Chaining job can be another Chaining job. Use comma (,) as a separator between jobs. For example, “job1, job2, job3”. You can also use the ellipsis button to select jobs from the list of available job definitions. See Selection of Job Definitions.
Parameter 2 – On-Failure Jobs (Optional): Specifies the jobs to be executed if any job in the Chaining job fails. This value is not case sensitive.
- Use colon (:) to specify a job and the corresponding failure job
- Use semi-colon (;) as the separator between job, failure jobs pairs

For example, job1 : failjob1 ; job2 : failjob2

Entity Selection Criteria Usage

Entities could be selected from UI (i.e. input override data) or from Chaining Job ESCs or from input files.

ESCs or input file names specified in the “chain” defined by Parameter 1 are ignored.

Note: For more details, see the "Job Server" topic in the Transportation Manager System Administration Guide.

IMPORTANT : If a Rating, Resource Selection, and Scheduling (RR&S) job is part of a Chaining job and the WriteJobHistoryPostJobProcessing parameter is set to "T", then the job history records created for this job type do not adhere to the parameter. The records will be created during job processing. The order of the records may not be indicative of the actual processing order, relative to other jobs in the Chaining job.