Running an application in a flow definition

You can connect applications to other work items in a flow by inserting the submission form as a work item.

Before you begin

Inserting applications in a flow has the following requirements:

• If the submission template is for an application(and not a flow definition), the submission form must have the required field Job Name with the reserved ID JOB_NAME. In the submission script, use -J $JOB_NAME as an option to the bsub command. Process Manager uses the job name to track the job and sets the JOB_NAME to be <flowid>:<userid>:<flowname>:< subflowname>:$JOB_NAME when passing it to IBM Spectrum LSF Application Center.
• The submission template must have the status Published.
• The user who is designing the flow must have access to the submission forms in System & Settings > Settings > Use Roles & Permissions
• If HTTPS is enabled in IBM Spectrum LSF Application Center, you need to define the following parameters in the Process Manager configuration file js.conf:

  JS_PAC_SERVER_URL

  Specifies the URL to connect to IBM Spectrum LSF Application Center. Process Manager server contacts IBM Spectrum LSF Application Center server to submit workload with the submission forms included in flows. For example,

   
  JS_PAC_SERVER_URL=http://host1.example.com:8080 
  JS_PAC_SERVER_URL=https://host1.example.com:8443

  JS_SUBMIT_PAC_FORM_TIMEOUT

  Time, in seconds for waiting for communication between the Process Manager Server and IBM Spectrum LSF Application Center. The default value is 300 seconds.

About this task

You can connect applications to other work items in a flow by inserting the submission form as a work item.

For example, your flow could be job J1, followed by a job submitted to FLUENT, then followed by job J3.

You can also insert submission forms to run other flows.

1. In Flow Editor, select Insert > Submission Form and click on the Flow Editor canvas.
2. Select the submission form icon, right-click and select Open Definition.

   The list of associated submission forms is displayed.

3. Select the submission form and click OK.

   The submission form is displayed.

4. Enter values for the parameters in the form as desired.

   If a value cannot be determined during the design of the flow and will be known when the flow runs, specify a user variable in fields in the submission form in the form #{VARIABLE_NAME}. The user variable is expected to be resolved and set when the flow runs.

5. Select the arrow to connect the submission form to other work items in the flow.
6. Select Flow Definition > Save Draft to save your flow definition to the server.