External Tab

The External Tab can be used to view information about the Windows Task Scheduler Tasks located on the computer running the JAMS Client, as well as jobs located on other computers.

SQL Agent jobs may also be converted from the External Tab. Directions for doing so are provided here.

Displaying Tasks

To view the Tasks installed on the current machine, simply select the Task Scheduler Ribbon Bar Tab.  Then, click the SchedulerTasks shortcut in the Shortcut bar to the left.  By default, this will display all the Scheduler Tasks currently configured on the local machine.  If no tasks are displayed, there may not be any Scheduler Tasks configured on the current machine.

To display the configured Tasks on a remote machine, right click on the shortcut bar, and choose the Add Shortcut option.  Enter a new name for the shortcut.

Next, select the Query tab.  In the Server Name field, enter the UNC path to the remote computer.  For example \\ServerName.

Press OK to add the new shortcut to the shortcut bar. When the newly added shortcut is selected, the Tasks on the remote machine will be displayed. If no tasks are displayed, ensure that there are Task Scheduler Tasks present on the remote machine.  Also, ensure that the current user account has access to the Tasks on the remote machine.

Task Folders

If user are using Windows Vista or Server 2008, Task Scheduler supports the use of folders to organize Tasks.  If the Folder field is left blank in the shortcut Query settings, then all the Tasks from all folders will be displayed.  If users would like to limit the results, simply enter the path to the desired folder.  Entering a single backslash "\" will display all of the Tasks in the root folder.  In the below example, all Tasks within the \Microsoft\Windows\Defrag\ folder will be displayed.

Note: After changing the Query Properties for a Shortcut, Users will need to select the shortcut in the Shortcut Bar and press the Refresh Button in order for the Query changes to take effect.

Scheduler Versions

There are two supported versions of Windows Scheduler.  The version in use is determined by the Operating system on which the JAMS Client is installed.  If the Client is running on Windows Vista or Server 2008, then it will be able to access Task information from other machines running Vista or Server 2008.  It will also be able to access Tasks from machines running Windows XP or Server 2003.

However, if the Client is running on Windows XP or Server 2003, it will only be able to access Task information from other machines running XP or Server 2003.  The libraries required to access Tasks on Vista and Server 2008 machines are not present, and therefore, no Task information can be retrieved from these servers.

Converting Tasks

It is very easy to convert a Task Scheduler Task to a JAMS Job. Simply select a Task from the Task list, right click, and choose the Convert option. Users can also use the Convert to JAMS button in the Ribbon Bar.

Note: Task conversion requires a connection to a JAMS Scheduler. The free version of the JAMS Client does not support converting Tasks to JAMS Jobs.  A licensed JAMS Scheduler is required.

A Conversion Wizard will now begin; this wizard walks though all of the steps required to convert a Task to a JAMS job.  On each step of the wizard, fields will be pre-populated with information from the selected Task Scheduler Task. Users can then change the retrieved information before the new JAMS Job is created.

Note: Not all options for a Task are supported by JAMS. If an option is not supported, then users may receive an error when advancing to the next conversion step. This is done so that users can appropriately change the property of the Job.

It is also possible to convert multiple Tasks at the same time. Just select several Tasks from the Task list and click the Convert to JAMS button. The first few steps will prompt for information common to all of the Tasks selected for conversion. The Wizard will then attempt to convert all of the selected Tasks to JAMS Jobs.

If a Task property cannot be directly converted to a JAMS Job Property, then a new Wizard screen will be displayed so that the property can be changed accordingly. A Task which cannot be converted automatically can be Canceled individually.

Other Actions

Tasks can also be started, stopped, and deleted from Task Scheduler.  Simply select a Task from the Task list and click the appropriate button on the Ribbon Bar.