Quick Start Guide to Creating a New Task

A new task can be created without writing any Java code if you define it based on an existing bean, event handler, and transform and create it using the default BeanTask class. This topic explains how to build such a task. Little or no explanation is provided since the goal is simply to give you a quick start rather than providing a tutorial. While it is highly recommended that you have a good understanding of tasks before you use and build tasks in production, there is no requirement that you first read the explanatory information in the MSDL before you perform the steps below. You can go back later and read in more depth after you have seen how easy it is to create a task.

The specific values provided in the instructions below are used only as an example. You can use these instructions as a guide to create a different task using different values.

1. Launch the Web Customization Editor.  

   1. Open Eclipse.  

   2. Navigate to Window -> Open Perspective ->Other -> MicroStrategyWeb Customization Editor.  

   3. Click OK.  

   4. Select the Application Settingsview.  

2. Click on MicroStrategy Web Configuration inside the Application Settings view to expand the hierarchical tree. The expanded list includes the different settings that can be modified to perform customizations.  

3. Right-click Tasks and select New Task to launch the Task Creation Wizard.  

4. On the Task Creation Wizard, do the following:  

   1. On the first panel, click Create a Task using an existing Bean and Event (XML based Bean Task) and then click Next.  

   2. On the second panel, enter the sample values provided in the table below:  

      Text field	Sample value	Description
      Task ID	myCustomBeanTask	Unique ID for the task
      Bean Name	rb	Name of the bean used by the task
      Bean upon which your Task will be based	ReportBean	Type of bean used by the task.
      Style to be used to format the data	ReportGridStyle	Style (and, by extension, transform) used to format the data

   3. On the third panel, use the arrow button to select 4001as the event to trigger when the task is executed and then click Next. 

   4. On the fourth panel, use the arrow button to select reportID as the event argument that will be used when the task is executed, specify properties for the arguments, and then click Next. 

   5. On the fifth panel, click Next. 

   6. On the sixth panel, click Next. 

   7. On the Results panel, review the information you entered and click Finish. 

   8. Save your changes.

 

Your new task is added to the Task Registry and will appear—as myCustomBeanTask—in the list of tasks in the Task Administrator application. Refer to the Quick Start Guide to Using an Existing Task for instructions on how you can use the Task Viewer application to construct and test a URL that invokes a currently registered task.