Hi,
I have cases where I need to kick off a service one time for testing purposes and the service will process some large files(1-3MB). I can either kick the service off manually in developer(no inputs) or schedule a one time run thru the Administrator.

Im wondering what the pros and cons are for each approach, and whether I gain anything by choosing one method over the other. I’ve heard competing answers would like to hear what you guys think. Thanks in advance.

Another approach is to invoke the service via the Administrator by browsing the packages!

For a long running process I would run it as a scheduled event because it will tie up your developer somewhat and seems to run slower in the Developer. Same goes for the administrator.

Basically if it’s going to take a while you want to run it in a background thread - you can create a java service to invoke a flow in a separate thread (invokeThreaded). There are issues with the scheduler dropping db connections during a flow (if you use them).

My 2cents.
WK

Thanks for that advice… I forgot you can invoke services from Administrator… Only issue I see is that its hard to tell the progress of a service when invoked thru Administrator… At least in Developer you see the progress bar and any errors that get generated.

Actually when running the service in the Administrator you will get the output wrapped in html tables - similar results as the Developer.

Also, the progress bar you mentioned just goes back and forth - it won’t tell you where you are in the process.

Will

If you are monitoring custom written flow services, you can (and should) always put log statements at strategic points of the code (such as branch statements, at start of service, and end of service). that way you can indirectly monitor progress via Trading networks console activity log screen, or log file if not using trading networks.

Also you can monitor which services are running or not via clicking the “Service Usage” (Under Server section) link in the web console.