Adding another task

To add another task to the existing suite test perform the following steps:

Modify the suite definition file to include the new task.
Create a new ecf script for the new task.
Reload and begin the modified suite definition into the ecflow_server.

The following shows the two methods of reloading the modified suite definition into the ecflow_server. The options presented are:

manually updating the text definition, and loading it via the CLI ecflow_client
to use the Python API to programmatically update and load the suite definition

It is good practice to suspend a suite before starting to update any part of it.

This avoids the suite automatically starting before the complete set of changes is complete.

Use the ecFlowUI to suspend the test suite, or run the following command to do the same using the CLI ecflow_client:

ecflow_client --suspend /test

Update the suite definition file to add the new task t2.

# Definition of the suite test
suite test
   edit ECF_HOME "{{HOME}}/course"
   task t1
   task t2
endsuite

Note

As before, replace {{HOME}}/course to point at the tutorial directory.

Load the modified suite definition into the ecflow_server using the CLI ecflow_client:

# Ensure suite 'test' doesn't exist by deleting all suites
ecflow_client --delete _all_

# Load the modified suite definition
ecflow_client --load test.def

# or, equivalently, replace the suite if it already exists
ecflow_client --replace /test test.def     # replace the whole suite

After loading the updated suite definition, begin the suite:

# Begin the suite
ecflow_client --begin test

The following script updates on the previous test.py to add the new task t2:

Listing 15 $HOME/course/test.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import pathlib
from ecflow import Defs, Suite, Task, Edit

if __name__ == '__main__':

    base = pathlib.Path.home() / "course"

    print("[1] Creating suite definition")

    defs = Defs(Suite("test", Edit(ECF_HOME=str(base)), Task("t1"), Task("t2")))
    print(defs)

    print("[2] Checking job creation: .ecf -> .job0")
    print(defs.check_job_creation())

    print("[3] Saving definition to file 'test.def'")
    defs.save_as_defs(str(base / "test.def"))

The following script deletes all suites in the server and reload modified test.def, we could update client.py

Listing 16 $HOME/course/client.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import pathlib
from ecflow import Client

if __name__ == '__main__':

    base = pathlib.Path.home() / "course"

    try:
        ci = Client()

        print("[1] Delete all suites from the server")
        ci.delete_all()  # clear out the server

        print("[2] Load suite definition in 'test.def' into the server")
        ci.load(str(base / "test.def"))
        # line above reads suite definition from disk and loads into the server

        print("[3] Begin the 'test' suite")
        ci.begin_suite("test")

        ### An alternative to deleting all suites before reloading
        ### is to simply replace the existing suite
        print("[1] Suspend the 'test' suite")
        ci.suspend("/test")

        print("[2] Replace the 'test' suite")
        ci.replace( "/test", "test.def")

    except RuntimeError as e:
        print("Failed:", e)

An alternative to deleting, loading and beginning the suite every time, the following script replaces the existing suite with the modified one. Notice that to avoid starting the suite straight away, the script suspends the suite using the Python API.

Listing 17 $HOME/course/client.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import pathlib
from ecflow import Client

if __name__ == '__main__':

    base = pathlib.Path.home() / "course"

    try:
        ci = Client()

        print("[1] Suspend the 'test' suite")
        ci.suspend("/test")

        print("[2] Replace the 'test' suite")
        ci.replace( "/test", str(base / "test.def"))

    except RuntimeError as e:
        print("Failed:", e)

Note

For the sake of brevity the examples that follow will not show the step of loading the suite.

What to do

Suspend the test suite, either using the ecFlowUI or the CLI ecflow_client.
Update the suite definition file by adding a new task t2.
Create ecf script file, named t2.ecf by copying t1.ecf.
(Optional) Update the Python scripts test.py and client.py (as shown above).
Replace the test suite using the CLI ecflow_client.
Resume the the suite using ecFlowUI or the CLI ecflow_client.
Observe the parallel execution of the tasks in ecFlowUI.