Introduction

• User might be interested to automatically receive reports about the JS7 - Task History that state what jobs have been executed for what date and time and the respective execution result.
  • Such reports include similar information as available from the JOC Cockpit's Task History view.
  • The reports are provided as Excel® files similar to what is available for export from the JOC Cockpit Task History view.
• Such reports can be scheduled, for example on a daily basis, to provide ongoing information about completed tasks and execution results.

Report the Task History from a Job

Task History reports can be automated by by JS7 jobs. The following PowerShell modules are used for this purpose:

• JS7 PowerShell Module to access the JS7 - REST Web Service API.
• ImportExcel PowerShell Module (3rd party) to create Excel® reports on Windows and Linux.

The Get-JS7TaskHistory cmdlet is used to retrieve Task History items and to forward them to the ImportExcel module within a job. The job is the same for Windows and Unix.

Find a sample report for download that includes the report with its Order-History worksheet: jobscheduler_reporting.xlsx

First Line of the Job

The only difference between platforms is the way how PowerShell is invoked with the first line of the job.

#!/usr/bin/env pwsh

Explanation:

• Use of a shebang allows to invoke the pwsh PowerShell executable.

@@findstr/v "^@@f.*&" "%~f0"|pwsh.exe -&goto:eof

Explanation:

• Credits for the Windows shebang replacement to How to run a PowerShell script within a Windows batch file
• If you consider this shebang replacement somewhat cryptic then add it to JS7 - Script Includes that are easily referenced from a shell job, for example by using ##!include pwsh
• The PowerShell executable pwsh.exe is available starting from PowerShell 6.0. PowerShell releases 5.x use the executable powershell.exe that can be specified accordingly with the shebang.

Job Implementation

Please consider that the below job is an example that has to be adjusted for your environment.

Download: jdOrderHistoryReport.workflow.json

@@findstr/v "^@@f.*&" "%~f0"|pwsh.exe -&goto:eof

Import-Module ImportExcel
Import-Module JS7

$credentials = ( New-Object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList 'root', ( 'root' | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force) )
Connect-JS7 -Url $env:JS7_JOC_URL -Credentials $credentials -Id $env:JS7_CONTROLLER_ID | Out-Null

# Dates in local time zone, output includes local date format
Get-JSOrderHistory -Timezone (Get-Timezone) -RelativeDateFrom -3d `
                |  Select-Object -Property @{name="Controller ID"; expression={$_.controllerId}}, `
                                           @{name="History ID"; expression={$_.historyId}}, `
                                           @{name="Order ID"; expression={$_.orderId}}, `
                                           @{name="Order Status"; expression={$_.state._text}}, `
                                           @{name="Order Position"; expression={$_.position}}, `
                                           @{name="Workflow"; expression={$_.workflow}}, `
                                           @{name="History Status"; expression={$_.state._text}}, `
                                           @{name="Planned Start Time"; expression={ Get-Date $_.plannedTime }}, `
                                           @{name="Start Time"; expression={Get-Date $_.startTime}}, `
                                           @{name="End Time"; expression={ Get-Date $_.endTime }}, `
                                           @{name="Duration (sec.)"; expression={ (New-Timespan -Start "$($_.startTime)" -End "$($_.endTime)").Seconds }} `
                | Export-Excel -Path /tmp/jobscheduler_reporting.xlsx -WorksheetName "Order-History" -ClearSheet

Write-Output ".. report created: /tmp/jobscheduler_reporting.xlsx"				

Explanation:

• Line 1: The job is executed with a Windows Agent and makes use of the PowerShell shebang for Windows, see above explanation.
• Line 3-4: The required PowerShell modules are imported. They could be installed with any location in the file system
• Line 6-7: The Connect-JS7 cmdlet is used to authenticate with the JS7 REST Web Service API. The required arguments for -Url , -Credentials and -Id can specified in a number of ways:
  • Consider JS7 - How to connect to JOC Cockpit using the PowerShell Module.
  • Use of JS7 - Job Resources that inject environment variables to the PowerShell job.
  • Use of a PowerShell profile.
• Line 10: The Get-JS7TaskHistory cmdlet is invoked
  • with the parameter -Timezone to specify to which time zone date values in the report should be converted. The parameter value -Timezone (Get-Timezone) specifies that the time zone of the Agent's server is used. Otherwise specify the desired time zone, for example like this: -Timezone (Get-Timezone -Id 'GMT Standard Time'). Without using this parameter any date values are stored as UTC dates to the report.
  • optionally with additional parameters, for example to specify the date or date range for which the report is created  A value -RelativeDateTo -3d specifies that the report should cover the last 3 days (until midnight). Keep in mind that dates have to be specified for the UTC time zone. Without this parameter the report will be created for the next day.
  • see the Get-JS7TaskHistory cmdlet for a full parameter reference.
• Line 11-21: From the output of the Get-JS7TaskHistory cmdlet a number of properties are selected and and are specified for the sequence in which they should occur in the report. 
  • To add more speaking column headers the property names are mapped to a more readable textual representation.
  • Consider the handling of date formats in line 17-21. Use of the Get-Date cmdlet converts the output format of dates (not the time zone) to the default format that is in place on the Agent's server. Without using the Get-Date cmdlet any date values will be stored to the report in ISO format, e.g. 2020-12-31 10:11:12+02:00 for a date in the European central time zone that is UTC+1 in winter time and UTC+2 in summer time.
  • Line 21 introduces a new property, a calculated duration. From the start time and end time values of a planned start the difference in seconds is calculated and is added to the report.
• Line 22: The list of properties per Task History item is piped to the Export-Excel cmdlet that is available with the ImportExcel PowerShell Module. The report file name is specified and optionally the worksheet. For a full list of parameters see the ImportExcel PowerShell Module.

Windows Version

Download: report_task_history_windows.job.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<job title="Report Task History" process_class="agent_windows">
  <script language="powershell"><![CDATA[
Import-Module $env:SCHEDULER_DATA/config/powershell/Modules/ImportExcel;
Import-Module $env:SCHEDULER_DATA/config/powershell/Modules/JobScheduler;

Connect-JS -Url $JOCCockpitUrl -Credential $JOCCockpitCredential | Out-Null;

# Dates in local timezone, output includes local date format
Get-JSTaskHistory -Timezone (Get-Timezone ) `
                |  Select-Object -Property @{name="JobScheduler ID"; expression={$_.jobschedulerId}}, `
                                           @{name="Task ID"; expression={$_.taskId}}, `
                                           @{name="Job"; expression={$_.job}}, `
                                           @{name="Status"; expression={$_.state._text}}, `
                                           @{name="Start Time"; expression={ Get-Date $_.startTime }}, `
                                           @{name="End Time"; expression={ Get-Date $_.endTime }}, `
                                           @{name="Duration (sec.)"; expression={ (New-Timespan -Start "$($_.startTime)" -End "$($_.endTime)").Seconds }}, `
                                           @{name="Criticality"; expression={$_.criticality}}, `
                                           @{name="Exit Code"; expression={$_.exitCode}} `
                | Export-Excel -Path /tmp/jobscheduler_reporting.xlsx -WorksheetName "Task-History" -ClearSheet;
				
Write-Output ".. report created: /tmp/jobscheduler_reporting.xls";
]]></script>
  <run_time/>
</job>

Explanations

• Line 2-3: The job is executed with a Windows Agent that is assigned by a process class. The job is of type "powershell" and will use the Powershell version provided with the server.
• Line 4-5: The required PowerShell modules are imported. They could be installed with any location in the file system
• Line 7: The Connect-JS cmdlet is used to authenticate with the JOC Cockpit REST Web Service. The required URL and credentials are specified in a PowerShell profile, see PowerShell CLI 1.2 - Use Cases - Credentials Management
• Line 10: The Get-JSTaskHistory cmdlet is called 
  • with the parameter -Timezone to specify to which timezone date values in the report should be converted. The parameter value -Timezone (Get-Timezone) specifies that the timezone of the Agent's server is used. Otherwise specify the desired timezone e.g. like this: -Timezone (Get-Timezone -Id 'GMT Standard Time'). Without using this parameter any date values are stored as UTC dates to the report.
  • optionally with additional parameters, e.g. to specify the date range for which the report is created  A value -DateFrom (Get-Date -Hour 0 -Minute 0 -Second 0).AddDays(-7).ToUniversalTime() specifies that the report should cover the last 7 days (from midnight). Keep in mind that dates have to be specified for the UTC timezone. Without this parameter the report will be created for the last day.
  • see the Get-JSTaskHistory cmdlet for a full parameter reference.
• Line 11-19: From the output of the Get-JSTaskHistory cmdlet a number of properties are selected and and are specified for the sequence in which they should occur in the report. 
  • To add more speaking column headers the property names are mapped to a more readable textual representation.
  • Consider the handling of date formats in lines 15, 16. Use of the Get-Date cmdlet converts the output format of dates (not the timezone) to the default format that is in place on the Agent's server. Without using the Get-Date cmdlet any date values will be stored to the report in ISO format, e.g. 2020-12-31 10:11:12+02:00 for a date in the European central timezone that is UTC+1 in winter time and UTC+2 in summer time.
  • Lines 17 introduces a new property, a calculated duration. From the start time and end time values of a past start the difference in seconds is calculated and is forwarded to the report.
• Line 20: The list of properties per task history item is piped to the Export-Excel cmdlet that is available with the ImportExcel PowerShell Module. The report file name is specified and optionally the worksheet. For a full list of parameters see the ImportExcel PowerShell Module.

Explanations

• Basically the same explanations as for the Windows version of the job apply.
• Line 4: The PowerShell has to be invoked with pwsh. Consider that any subsequent PowerShell commands are quoted within a string that starts with line 3 and that ends with line 29. 
  • As the string is using a single quote all subsequent PowerShell commands make use of double quotes when required.
  • You could apply a different quoting style, however, quotes have to be consistent.
• Line 5: As an example a PowerShell profile is invoked that provides the variables for URL and credentials to access the JOC Cockpit REST Web Service. Such profiles can be stored in different locations and can be invoked automatically by pwsh on startup.