Types of variables
Process Manager supports three types of variables:
Built-in variables
User variables
Environment variables
Built-in variables
Built-in variables are those defined by Process Manager, where the value is obtained automatically by Process Manager and made available for use by a flow. No special setup is required to use Process Manager built-in variables. You can use these variables in many of the job definition fields in Flow Editor.
User variables
User variables are those created by a user. To use a user variable, you must first create a job that sets a runtime value for the variable and exports it to Process Manager. Once a value has been set for the variable, you can use the variable in many of the job definition fields in Flow Editor.
There are two types of user variables Process Manager users can set:
Flow variables—variables with values that are available only to jobs, job arrays, subflows or events within the current flow. These variables are set with the command ppmsetvar -f or in a file specified by JS_FLOW_VARIABLE_FILE.
Parent variables are local variables with values that are set at the parent flow scope. If the current flow is the main flow, the variables are set at the main flow scope. These variables are set with the command ppmsetvar -p or in a file specified by JS_PARENT_FLOW_VARIABLE_FILE.
You use the built-in variable JS_FLOW_SHORT_NAME when you need to use the shortened version of the flow name to avoid a potential name conflict issue when using JS_PARENT_FLOW_VARIABLE_FILE to set parent flow variables.
Global variables—variables with values that are available to all the flows within the Process Manager Server. These variables are set with the command ppmsetvar -g or in a file specified by JS_GLOBAL_VARIABLE_FILE.
User variables can also be used inside environment variables.
Environment variables
You can submit a job that has environment variables that are used when the job runs. Environment variables can contain user variables.