Introduction

  • Users might be interested in automatically receiving reports about the JS7 - Task History, listing which jobs have been executed, the date and time at which they were executed and the respective execution result.
    • Such reports include similar information to that which is available in the JOC Cockpit's Task History view.
    • The reports are provided as Excel® files similar to those which are available for export from the JOC Cockpit Task History view.
  • These reports can be scheduled, for example on a daily basis, to provide ongoing information about completed tasks and execution results.

Report the Task History from a Job

Task History reports can be automated by JS7 jobs. The following PowerShell modules are used for this purpose:

The Get-JS7TaskHistory cmdlet is used to retrieve Task History items and to forward them to the ImportExcel module within a job. The job is the same for Windows and Unix.

A sample report is available for download which includes the report's Task-History worksheet: jobscheduler_reporting.xlsx

First Line of the Job

The only difference between platforms is the way in which PowerShell is invoked with the first line of the job.

Shebang for PowerShell Job with Unix
#!/usr/bin/env pwsh

Explanation:

  • Use of a shebang allows the pwsh PowerShell executable to be invoked.


Shebang for PowerShell Job with Windows
@@findstr/v "^@@f.*&" "%~f0"|pwsh.exe -&goto:eof

Explanation:

  • Credits for the Windows shebang replacement go to How to run a PowerShell script within a Windows batch file.
  • If you consider this shebang replacement somewhat cryptic then add it to JS7 - Script Includes which are easily referenced from a shell job, for example, by using ##!include pwsh.
  • The PowerShell executable pwsh.exe is available starting from PowerShell 6.0. PowerShell releases 5.x use the powershell.exe executable which can be specified accordingly with the shebang.

Job Implementation

Please note that the job listed below is an example which has to be modified for your environment.

Download (.json upload)jdTaskHistoryReport.workflow.json


Task History Report Job
@@findstr/v "^@@f.*&" "%~f0"|pwsh.exe -&goto:eof

Import-Module ImportExcel
Import-Module JS7

$credentials = ( New-Object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList 'root', ( 'root' | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force) )
Connect-JS7 -Url $env:JS7_JOC_URL -Credentials $credentials -Id $env:JS7_CONTROLLER_ID | Out-Null

# Dates in local time zone, output includes local date format
Get-JSTaskHistory -Timezone (Get-Timezone) -RelativeDateFrom -3d `
                |  Select-Object -Property @{name="Controller ID"; expression={$_.controllerId}}, `
                                           @{name="Agent URL"; expression={$_.agentUrl}}, `
                                           @{name="Task History ID"; expression={$_.taskId}}, `
                                           @{name="Order ID"; expression={$_.orderId}}, `
                                           @{name="Order Status"; expression={$_.state._text}}, `
                                           @{name="Order Position"; expression={$_.position}}, `
                                           @{name="Workflow"; expression={$_.workflow}}, `
                                           @{name="Job"; expression={$_.job}}, `
                                           @{name="Criticality"; expression={$_.criticality}}, `
                                           @{name="Sequence"; expression={$_.sequence}}, `
                                           @{name="Retry Counter"; expression={$_.retryCounter}}, `
                                           @{name="Exit Code"; expression={$_.exitCode}}, `
                                           @{name="History Status"; expression={$_.state._text}}, `
                                           @{name="Arguments"; expression={$_.arguments}}, `
                                           @{name="Start Time"; expression={Get-Date $_.startTime}}, `
                                           @{name="End Time"; expression={ Get-Date $_.endTime }}, `
                                           @{name="Duration (sec.)"; expression={ (New-Timespan -Start "$($_.startTime)" -End "$($_.endTime)").Seconds }} `
                | Export-Excel -Path /tmp/jobscheduler_reporting.xlsx -WorksheetName "Task-History" -ClearSheet

Write-Output ".. report created: /tmp/jobscheduler_reporting.xlsx"				

Explanation:

  • Line 1: The job is executed with a Windows Agent and makes use of the PowerShell shebang for Windows, as described above.
  • Line 3-4: The necessary PowerShell modules are imported. They could be installed in any location in the file system
  • Line 6-7: The Connect-JS7 cmdlet is used to authenticate with the JS7 REST Web Service API. The required arguments for -Url , -Credentials and -Id can specified in a number of ways:
  • Line 10: The Get-JS7TaskHistory cmdlet is invoked:
    • with the -Timezone parameter to specify which time zone the date values in the report should be converted to. The -Timezone (Get-Timezone) parameter value specifies that the time zone of the Agent's server is used. Otherwise specify the desired time zone, for example like this: -Timezone (Get-Timezone -Id 'GMT Standard Time'). Without using this parameter any date values are stored in the report as UTC dates.
    • optionally with additional parameters, for example to specify the date or date range which the report is created for. A value -RelativeDateTo -3d specifies that the report should cover the last 3 days (until midnight). Keep in mind that dates have to be specified for the UTC time zone. Without this parameter the report will be created for the next day.
    • see the Get-JS7TaskHistory cmdlet for a full parameter reference.
  • Line 11-28: From the output of the Get-JS7TaskHistory cmdlet a number of properties are selected and are specified for the sequence in which they should occur in the report. 
    • To add more appropriate column headers the property names are mapped to a more readable textual representation.
    • Consider the handling of date formats in line 17-21. Use of the Get-Date cmdlet converts the output format of dates (not the time zone) to the default format which is in place on the Agent's server. Without using the Get-Date cmdlet any date values will be stored in the report in ISO format, e.g. 2020-12-31 10:11:12+02:00 for a date in the European central time zone that is UTC+1 in winter time and UTC+2 in summer time.
    • Line 28 introduces a new property, a calculated duration. From the start time and end time values of a planned start the difference in seconds is calculated and is added to the report.
  • Line 29: The list of properties for every Task History item is piped to the Export-Excel cmdlet which is available with the ImportExcel PowerShell Module. The report file name is specified and optionally the worksheet. For a full list of parameters see the ImportExcel PowerShell Module.