Operation List Branching

Overview

Operation Lists contain a tree-like structure of Standard Operations. The flow of execution of an Operation List is determined by the configuration of the operations within that tree, and the results of each operation execution.

Mechanism

Operations are branched such that they can each have a Child and a Next operation.

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Each Standard Operation has a Success Action and a Failure Action which will determine the action to be taken after the configured number of retries. These fields can be set to:

Type Description
Run next operation The next operation in the tree will be run.
Run child operation The first child of of the current operation will be run.
Stop operation list execution Operation list execution will cease.

The operation list will continue to execute until either a stop operation list execution action is hit; or the end of the operation list. If a child operation is not configured to stop operation list execution, execution will jump back to where it branched off and continue.

Operation Functions

The tree structure of an Operation List can be manipulated by accessing the Operation Functions Menu. See Operation Lists for further details.

Example

In this example, an operation list has been created with three PowerShell Script operations.

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  • The root operation is configured to read a file from a defined location.
  • The child operation is configured to delete a file from the same location.
  • The next operation is configured to create a file to the same location.

The root operation is configured as follows:

Field Setting
Success Action Run child operation.
Failure Action Run next operation.

The child operation is configured as follows:

Field Setting
Success Action Run next operation.
Failure Action Stop operation list execution.

The next operation is configured as follows:

Field Setting
Success Action Stop operation list execution.
Failure Action Stop operation list execution.
TIP: The file at the defined location does not initially exist.

On the first run of the operation list

  1. The root operation attempts to read a non-existent file, and as such it will Fail.
  2. Due to the Failure Action being configured to Run next operation, the next operation will be run.
  3. The next operation is run and creates the file at the defined location.
TIP: The file at the defined location now exists.

On the second run of the operation list

  1. The root operation attempts to read the file, which will Succeed.
  2. Due to the Success Action being configured to Run child operation, the child operation will be run.
  3. The child operation is run and deletes the file at the defined location.
TIP: The file at the defined location has been deleted.

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