Manage commands in chains

Commands are the tasks performed within the chain, based on a connection with a datasource. For more complex chains, this can include commands triggered by a variety of conditions.

Note: Before you add a chain, ensure your organization sets up the connections required to enable commands with its data sources.

To run specific commands serially—one after the other, with each waiting for the previous command to finish—or simultaneously in parallel, or to have a chain fail if one command of several fails, group them together.

Add a command to a chain

1. In the chain, select the command to perform:
   • To add a new command to the chain, under Available BizApps, click its connection, and then move the command to where it should occur in the chain.
   • To duplicate an existing command, select its node, click Copy  file_copy , and move the new node to where it should occur in the chain.

   Tip: To add a command as the first node of the chain, move it to Start.

2. To link the command to its previous and next nodes in the chain, click and drag lines between their node's ports.

   Note: To change a node's position in the chain, unlink it from other nodes, and then move it to where it should occur. To move multiple nodes at once, hold SHIFT as you select them.

3. Select the new node, and click Edit  create.
4. Enter the command's parameters:
   • Under Basic Info, enter a unique name and description to help identify the command and its intent.
   • Toggle the eye icon if you'd like to mask sensitive data outputs.
   • To run the command multiple times, for each item in list, enable Iterator repeat, and enter the iteration values.
   • Under Command Properties, enter the command's inputs, based on the connector.
5. Click Save.

Run only a single command or group

To ease testing and quick iterations as you build chains, you can execute a single command or command group within a chain.

1. In Chain Builder, from the Chains tab, select Execute  flight_takeoff from the chain's menu.
2. For the command or group to run, click Execute this command  play_circle_outline.
3. Click Run Chain.

Skip a command

To develop branching logic, or as part of developing a chain, you may need to skip a command to force a specific result. You can also set up conditional logic to automatically return a specific result based on set rules.

1. In the chain, select the command's node, click Edit  create , and select Skip skip_next.
2. Choose whether to automatically return a result of info  check_circle, warning  warning, or error  error for the command when skipped.
3. To skip the command only if specific criteria is met, specify when. Build the conditional logic as a group you add rules and other groups of rules to, each joined with an AND or OR boolean.
   • If all conditions must be true to skip, select AND.
   • If only one condition must be true to skip, select OR.

   You can add rules based on various data types:

   Data Type	Description
   String	Two or more characters
   Integer	Any whole, non-decimal numeric value
   Date	Any date string or Date variable
   Float	Any numeric value
   JSON	JavaScript Object Notation; use Variable Transformation to parse objects

   To verify whether data meets the criteria to skip the command, pair it with an operator and value:

   • Is blank or Is not blank
   • Contains
   • Matches RegExp, for regular expression
   • Starts with or Ends with
   • = or !=
   • < or >
   • <= or >=
4. Click Save.

Manage a command's error handling

To detect or ignore errors for a command:

1. In the chain, click the command's node, click Edit  create, and select Error handling  warning.
2. Under Error actions  repeat, select what to do if the command fails.
   
   • To follow the chain branching logic, select Continue with chain.
   • To stop the chain temporarily, such as to remedy the issue, select Pause chain. To restart the chain after the issue is resolved, select the command in the chain, and click Resume.
   • To stop the chain completely, select Exit chain.
3. To stop the command if it takes longer than it should, under Timeout conditions  alarm, enter its maximum duration in seconds.
   
4. To retry a command if its data source is intermittent or unavailable, enter the number of retries to attempt and how many seconds to wait between attempts.
5. Under Error conditions  priority_high, select any errors to ignore, such as when creating a folder that already exists.
6. To set the status of the command based on its output, click Add under Output interpretation, and define the rule—or group of rules—to interpret its status.  For example, with the Status variable of the Command Details output, you can set a rule to result in a warning when the command succeeds.
   
7. Under Log interpretation, select whether to fail the command based on whether it results in specific outputs.
   • To not fail the command based on specific outputs, select Do not interpret.
   • To fail the command when specific outputs are found, select Fail if output(s) found, and enter the outputs to scan for.
   • To fail the command when specific outputs aren't found, select Fail if output(s) not found, and enter the output to scan for.
8. Click Save.

View a command's output

From Monitor flight_takeoff, you can preview the output of a command run through the CloudRunner. 

1. In Chain Builder, from Monitor, open the run with the output to preview, and select the command.
2. On the Outputs tab, click Preview the output visibility for the output to view.
   

Note: You can only preview outputs of commands run through the CloudRunner, not a GroundRunner.

Remove a command from a chain

To remove a command from a chain, click its node, click Delete  delete, and then click Delete.

Note: To help ensure the logic of the chain, you can't delete a command if its parent has multiple siblings or branches on its same level.