Overview of Operationalization

In the following sections, you can review short summaries of specific features and explore more detailed information on them.

Single-Flow Operations

These features can be applied to individual flows to simplify job execution.

Parameterization

Parameterization enables you to specify parameters that capture variability in your data source paths or names. For example, you can parameterize the names of folders in your filepaths to capture files within multiple folders. Or, you can parameterize your inputs to capture datasets named within a specific time range. Nested folders of data can be parameterized, too.

Parameter types:

• dataset parameters: Parameterize the input paths to your data, allowing you to process data in parallel files and tables through the same flow.
• output parameters: Parameterize the output paths for your results.

• flow parameters: Define parameters that can be applied in your flows, including recipe steps.

  Tip: You can apply overrides to any parameter at the flow level. These parameter override values are applied to any parameter that is referenced within the flow for any supported parameter type.

Parameter formats:

Parameterization is available for the following:

File systems

Relational sources

Scheduling

The scheduling feature, also known as Automator, enables you to schedule the execution of individual flows on a specified frequency. Frequencies can be specified through the Designer Cloud application through a simple interface or, if needed, in a modified form of cron syntax.

For more information, see Overview of Automator.

Job monitoring

After a job has been launched, detailed monitoring permits you to track the progress of your job during all phases of execution. Status, job stats, inputs, outputs and a flow snapshot are available through the Designer Cloud application.For more information, see Overview of Job Monitoring.

Email notifications

After a job has completed, you can send email notifications to stakeholders based on the success or failure of the job.

These notifications are defined within Flow View. See Email Notifications Page.

Webhooks

Webhook notifications let you define outgoing HTTP messages to any REST API. The message form and body can be customized to include job execution metadata. For more information, see  Create Flow Webhook Task.

Deployment Manager

The Deployment Manager is a separate environment that can be enabled for the execution of production flows under limited access. Flows in development are exported from your default (Dev) instance and then imported to the Production instance, the Deployment Manager, where you can configure the periodic execution of the flow. For more information, see Overview of Deployment Manager.

Orchestration

Orchestration is a set of functionality that supports the scheduled execution of jobs across multiple flows. These jobs could be external processes, other flows, or even HTTP requests.

Terms

Limitations

• A plan or task cannot be shared.
• You cannot specify parameter overrides to be applied to plans specifically.
  • Plans inherit parameter values from the objects referenced in the plan's tasks.

  • If overrides are applied to flow parameters, those overrides are passed to the plan at the time of flow execution.

    Tip: Prior to plan execution, you can specify parameter overrides at the flow level. These values are passed through to the plan for execution. For more information, see Manage Parameters Dialog.

For this release:

• The only type of plan task that is supported is Run Flow.
• Tasks are defined in a linear, non-branching sequence based on the trigger.

Basic workflow

You create a plan and schedule it using the following basic workflow.

1. Create the plan. A plan is the container for definition of the tasks, triggers, and other objects. See Plans Page.
2. In Plan View, you specify the objects that are part of your plan. See Plan View Page.
   1. Schedule: The schedule defines the set of triggers that queue the plan for execution.
      1. Trigger: A trigger defines the schedule and frequency at which the plan is executed. A plan can have multiple triggers (e.g. monthly versus weekly executions).
   2. Task(s): Next, you specify the tasks that are executed in order.

      1. A task includes the specification of the flow to run and the outputs from the flow to generate.

         NOTE: You can select the outputs from the recipe that you wish to generate. You do not need to generate all outputs.

         NOTE: When a task is executed, the execution plan works back from the selected outputs to execute all of the recipes required to generate the output, including the upstream dependencies of those recipes.

      2. Continue building tasks in a sequence.
3. As needed, you can apply override values to any flow parameters that are included in the flow tasks of your recipe. These overrides are applied during a plan run. For more information, see Manage Parameters Dialog.
4. To test:
   
   1. Click Run now.
   2. To track progress, click the Runs link.
   3. In the Run Details page, you can track the progress.
   4. The first task is executed and completes, before the second task is started.
      
   5. Individual tasks are executed as separate jobs, which you can track through the Jobs page. See Jobs Page.
   6. When the plan has completed, you can verify the results through the Job details page. See Job Details Page.
5. If you are satisfied with the plan definition and your test run, the plan will execute according to the scheduled trigger.

Plan scheduling

Through the Plan View page, you can configure the scheduled executions of the plan. Plan schedules are defined using triggers.

• These schedules are independent of schedules for individual flows.
• You cannot create schedules for individual tasks.

Plan execution

When a plan is triggered for execution, a snapshot of the plan is taken. This snapshot is used to execute the plan. Tasks are executed in the sequence listed in Plan View. If a task fails, no subsequent tasks are executed.

Important notes:

At the flow level, you can define webhooks and email notifications that are triggered based on the successful generation of outputs. When you execute a plan containing an output with one of these messages, the message is triggered and delivered to stakeholders.

See "Webhooks" and "Email notifications" above.