Changing task priorities

When a user creates a project, the tasks in the projects receive a priority by default. You can change the priority of a task to make sure that the Workflow Engine Queue processes it ahead of others. However, if a task is already running, you cannot change its priority; you can only change the priority of tasks that are in the queue, waiting to run.

About this task

Task priorities are closely related to task bands. Bands are a means of assigning priorities to tasks immediately after you create a project.

WorldServer administrators can configure task bands in the general.properties file, through the task_priority_bands property. For example, if they set the value of the task_priority_bands property to 10,20,30, each project that you create will be organized according to the following four bands:
BandNumber of tasksPriority
10-91
210-192
320-293
430-no upper limit4
Each band receives a corresponding priority: Band 1 corresponds to Priority 1, Band 2 corresponds to Priority 2, and so on.

As an example, you might have two projects: Project A and Project B. Project A only has three tasks, whereas Project B has 26 tasks. In this case, the tasks in Project A are included in Band 1 (0-9), which means that they have Priority 1 and that they are processed first, ahead of the tasks in Project B. The tasks in Project B are included in Band 3 (20-29) and they have Priority 3.

Procedure

  1. In WorldServer, go to the Projects page.
  2. On the Projects page, do one of the following:
    • On the WorldServer 11 interface, expand the project group that contains the appropriate project, and then select the target locale of the project.
    • On the Classic interface, click the name of the project corresponding to the appropriate target locale.

    The tasks of the project are displayed on the Tasks page.

  3. Select the check box corresponding to the task whose priority you want to change.
  4. Do one of the following:
    • On the WorldServer 11 interface, select Task Options > Change Priority.
    • On the Classic interface, select More Options > Task Options > Change Priority.
  5. In the Change Task Priorities dialog box, in the Task Priority list, select the new priority that you want to give to the task.
  6. Select OK.