Run a Workspace

The Run a Workspace action receives messages from triggers or other actions and runs an FME Desktop workspace that has been uploaded to FME Server.

To use the contents of the message in the workspace, specify a workspace published parameter to receive the data. Alternatively, use readers, writers, or transformers that are equipped to receive JSON-formatted messages.

Tip:  

Automations can run multiple Run a Workspace actions in parallel, depending on availability of FME Engines. For more control over engine allocation, use Queue Control.

You can connect multiple workspace actions that output a single message to downstream components in your workflow. For more information, see Combining Messages from Multiple Workspace Actions.

Output Ports

All Run a Workspace actions have success and failure output ports. The success port (✔) can send a message if the workspace completes successfully. The failure port (x) can send a message if the workspace fails to complete.

Note: When Retry settings are configured, the failure port renders with a Retry Configured (⟳) icon.

Additionally, if the specified workspace is configured with FME Server Automations writers, the Run a Workspace action contains output ports corresponding to each writer feature type.

For more information:

Details

  • Action: Select Run a Workspace.
  • Repository: Specify the repository in which the workspace resides.
  • Workspace: Specify the workspace you want to run.

Parameters

If the specified workspace has any published parameters, configure the settings you desire when the workspace runs.

Note: See also Working with Parameters in Automations Workflows.

Tip: If a newer version of the workspace is republished to FME Server while the current Run a Workspace action is open, click the Reset and Refresh Parameters button to apply any updates to published parameters.

Output Keys

See Also

Tip: To view the output keys from upstream components, click Show Upstream Keys.

Success and Failure Keys

Tip: You can work with error messages in the following ways:
View them in the Automation log.
Log them in a Log a Message action.
Use them to drive additional operations downstream in your workflow.

Key Description
time Event time
source Event type
error.type

(Failure port only) Error type:

  • DeadLetter: An error occurred when configuring the workspace to run, or during the translation.
error.message (Failure port only) Error message
job.timeSubmitted Time submitted
job.timeStarted Time started
job.timeFinished Time finished
job.status Job status
job.statusMessage Job status message
job.log Job log
job.repository Repository
job.workspace Workspace
job.id Job ID

Feature Type Attribute Keys

Run a Workspace actions that reference workspaces configured with FME Server Automations writers generate a set of output keys for each writer feature type. Each key corresponds to a feature type attribute exposed in the writer. For more information, see Routing Data from Workspaces.

Advanced

  • Job Queue (optional): The queue in which to run the job. The specified queue overrides the queue that would otherwise be assigned based on Queue Control job routing rules. If not specified, job routing rules apply. To view the queues to which FME Engines are assigned, open the Engines page.
  • Queued Job Expiry Time (optional): The length of time after which a job that is waiting in queue does not execute. If the job does not execute before this time is reached, it remains in the queue until it is ready to execute, but execution is not attempted. This directive is useful for time-sensitive jobs that you do not want to run after the specified time is exceeded.
  • Running Job Expiry Time (optional): The time a job will remain in the running state. This directive is used to ensure that a job does not hang and block an FME Engine indefinitely. The minimum allowable value is 1.
  • Skip if Job In Progress: If checked, a triggered job does not run if the status of the previously triggered job is still Running or Queued. If a job is skipped, the following InvalidMessage error message is output through the failure port: Job is already in progress; the triggered job was skipped.

Retry

  • Retry on failure: If checked, the automation attempts to run the action again if the initial attempt results in a failure to connect to the specified external resource for message delivery. The manner in which these retries are conducted is based on the remaining settings.
  • Use custom retry settings: If checked, the remaining retry settings are configurable. If not checked, they are set to the FME Server default values.
  • Number of attempts: Maximum number of retries, if the action continues to fail.
  • Wait between attempts: Time to wait between retries. In conjunction with Backoff multiplier (below), the specified value is the wait time for the first retry.
  • Backoff multiplier: Factor by which to increase Wait between attempts on successive retries. For example, a value of 2.0 doubles the wait time for the next retry.
  • Randomization factor: Percentage by which to introduce randomness to Wait between attempts. For example, if Wait between attempts is 100 Seconds, and Randomization factor is 25, the wait time for each retry is randomly selected between 75 and 125 seconds.
  • Maximum wait between attempts: Maximum wait time between retries. In conjunction with Backoff multiplier, the specified value is the upper limit for wait time.

Job Statistics

You can view useful information about how a workspace has performed from a Run a Workspace action, since the workflow was last started. This information can help you make important decisions about how to run the workspace, particularly when configuring Queue Control. If the same workspace is referenced from more than one Run a Workspace action in the workflow, Job Statistics applies only to the selected action. Statistics are reset each time the workflow is started.

  • Average % CPU: Average percentage of processing time that is recorded as CPU time, calculated as Average CPU Time / Average Elapsed Time.
  • Average CPU Time: Average total CPU time to run the workspace. For more information about how CPU Time is measured, see the Completed jobs table.
  • Average Elapsed Time: Average total processing time of the workspace.
  • Average Peak Memory Usage: Average peak memory usage by the FME Engine while processing a job. For more information about how Peak Memory Usage is measured, see the Completed jobs table.
  • Total Runs: The number of times the workspace has run since the workflow was last started.