About updating tasks on the Classic interface

A couple of scenarios that show how updating tasks works in conjunction with other components and configurations.

Updates and workflows

WorldServer updates the tasks pending update when a user completes a workflow step configured to allow task updates. You can update and restart a task to pick up changed assets as many times as you need.

To define exactly at what points of the workflow you want tasks to be updated, select the Apply pending update after completing step check box in the Advanced Options section of any human or automatic action. By default, this check box is selected, so WorldServer restarts the tasks that are in a Pending Update state after the current workflow steps have been completed. The tasks will either be restarted by a workflow engine after the current automatic step is completed or by WorldServer after a user completes a human step in the workflow.

In the default configuration, WorldServer can update tasks after any step in a workflow. However, if you have sophisticated workflows, you may want to create so-called protected regions in your workflow, where WorldServer cannot update tasks. For example, if you are not using Live TM mode and your translators cannot save and update the TM directly, then you would want to make sure that updates are not applied until after the Save step in the workflow. This would ensure that you don't lose any work between the time the translation process started and the time the work was saved to the translation memory.

To create a protected region in your workflow, disable the Apply pending updates after completing step option on every step in the protected region, except for the last one. Under this model, WorldServer waits until the task has exited the protected region before applying an update.

The most conservative approach would be to say that updates can never happen on an active task; updates can only happen when a task has been completed or canceled. To achieve this, clear the Apply pending updates after completing step check box on every step in the workflow. Under this model, WorldServer waits until a task has been completed or canceled to apply an update.

Updates in Live TM mode

If you are running in Live TM mode, this update occurs automatically and transparently for all segments with the Pending Review or Reviewed status whenever the segment cache is updated, without requiring you to manually save your outstanding work to the translation memory.

Updates in non-Live mode

You can update tasks even if you are not running in Live TM mode. However, to save all outstanding translation work in the project, you will have to manually update the translation memory for each task pending restart before completing the current task step. The safest way to do this is to create a protected region in your workflow between the Translate step and the Save step, using the Apply pending update after completing step check box in the Advanced Options section of any human or automatic action. Thus, you can ensure that work is not lost.

Updates and project-scope automatic actions

For project-scope automatic actions, restarted (updated) tasks behave like newly added tasks. If the project-scope step has not yet been executed in the workflow, the previously existing tasks that are still active wait for the restarted tasks to catch up when they reach the project-scope step.

However, if a project-scope step has already been executed in the project, the project-scope step is executed only on the new and changed tasks that pass through the workflow again; it does not consider existing tasks that have already passed the project-scope step. For example, if you are using the Generate Translation Kit project-scope automatic action in your workflow, the original kit still contains the old versions of the assets along with everything else, whereas the new kit (the one generated by the new and restarted tasks) will contain only the new and changed assets.