padv.builtin.query.GetOutputsOfDependentTask Class

Namespace: padv.builtin.query
Superclasses: padv.Query

Query for getting outputs from predecessor task

Description

The padv.builtin.query.GetOutputsOfDependentTask class provides a query that can return the outputs from a predecessor task.

You can use this query in your process model or task definition to find artifacts for your task to use as inputs. Typically, you use this query to pass the outputs of one task as inputs to another task. For example, if TaskB depends on TaskA, then TaskA is a predecessor task. You can pass the outputs from TaskA to TaskB by specifying GetOutputsOfDependentTask as an input query for TaskB.

The padv.builtin.query.GetOutputsOfDependentTask class is a handle class.

Creation

Description

query = padv.builtin.query.GetOutputsOfDependentTask() creates a query for getting the outputs from the predecessor task. You must define the predecessor task by using the function dependsOn on the task objects.

query = padv.builtin.query.GetOutputsOfDependentTask(___,Name=Value) sets certain properties using one or more name-value arguments. For example, padv.builtin.query.GetOutputsOfDependentTask(Name="MyQuery",Task="TaskA") creates a query named MyQuery that finds the outputs from TaskA.

The padv.builtin.query.GetOutputsOfDependentTask class also has other properties, but you cannot set those properties during query creation.

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Example: padv.builtin.query.GetOutputsOfDependentTask(Name="MyQuery",Task="TaskA")

taskNameorInstance — Task name or instance

string | padv.Task object

Task name or instance, specified as a string or padv.Task object.

This argument specifies the value of the DependentTask property for the class instance.

Example: "NameOfMyTask"

Example: padv.builtin.task.RunModelStandards

queryName — Name of query

string

Name of query, specified as a string.

This argument specifies the value of the Name property for the class instance.

Example: "NameOfMyQuery"

Properties

DependentTask — Predecessor task name or instance

string | padv.Task object

Predecessor task name or instance, specified as a string or padv.Task object.

Example: "NameOfMyTask"

Example: padv.builtin.task.RunModelStandards

Data Types: string

Title — Query title

"Outputs of the dependent task" (default) | string | character vector

Query title, specified as a string or a character vector.

Example: "Get artifacts from previous task"

Data Types: char | string

Parent — Initial query that runs before iteration query

padv.Query | Name of padv.Query object

Initial query that runs before iteration query, specified as either a padv.Query object or the Name of a padv.Query object. When you specify an iteration query for a task, the parent query is the initial query that the build system runs before running the specified iteration query.

For information on how to improve Process Advisor load times by sharing query instances across your process model, see Best Practices for Process Model Authoring.

Example: sharedQuery

Example: "FindMyInitialArtifacts"

Name — Unique identifier for query

"padv.builtin.query.GetOutputsOfDependentTask" (default) | string

Unique identifier for query, specified as a string.

Example: "GetOutputsFromTask"

Data Types: string

ShowFileExtension — Show file extensions for returned artifacts

0 (false) | 1 (true)

Show file extensions in the Alias property of returned artifacts, specified as a numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). The Alias property controls the display name for the artifact in the Tasks column in Process Advisor.

By default, queries strip file extensions from the Alias property of each task iteration artifact. To show file extensions for all artifacts in the Tasks column, select the project setting Show file extensions. To keep file extensions in the results for a specific query, specify the query property ShowFileExtension as true.

Example: true

Data Types: logical

SortArtifacts — Setting for automatically sorting artifacts by address

true or 1 (default) | false or 0

Setting for automatically sorting artifacts by address, specified as a numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). When a query returns artifacts, the artifacts should be in a consistent order. By default, the build system sorts artifacts by the artifact address.

Alternatively, you can sort artifacts in a different order by overriding the internal sortArtifacts method in a subclass that defines a custom sort behavior. For an example, see Sort Artifacts in Specific Order.

The build system automatically calls the sortArtifacts method when using the process model. The sortArtifacts method expects two input arguments: a padv.Query object and a list of padv.Artifact objects returned by the run method. The sortArtifacts method should return a list of sorted padv.Artifact objects.

Example: SortArtifacts = false

Data Types: logical

FunctionHandle — Handle to function that function-based query runs

function_handle

Handle to the function that a function-based query runs, specified as a function_handle.

If you define your query functionality inside a function and you or the build system call run on the query, the query runs the function specified by the function_handle.

The built-in queries are defined inside classes and do not use the FunctionHandle.

Example: FunctionHandle = @FunctionForQuery

Data Types: function_handle

Methods

Specialized Public Methods

This class overrides the following inherited methods.

run

Run query to find the artifacts that meet the criteria specified by the query. The query returns a padv.Artifact object or an array of padv.Artifact objects that represent those artifacts. Note You do not need to manually invoke this method inside your process model. The build system automatically invokes the run method to find artifacts. The run method inside this built-in query runs on a query object obj and returns artifacts artifacts. If you inherit from this built-in query, make sure to use the same method signature inside your custom query: function artifacts = run(obj,~) ... end

Examples

Use Task Outputs as Task Inputs

Suppose that you want to pass the output of one task as the input to another task. You can use the built-in query GetOutputsOfDependentTask to find the outputs of the predecessor task and specify that query as an input query for the task.

For this example, open the Process Advisor example project.

processAdvisorExampleStart

The process model for the example specifies that the Merge Test Results task depends on the Run Tests task:

if includeTestsPerTestCaseTask && includeMergeTestResultsTask
    mergeTestTask.dependsOn(milTask, "WhenStatus",{'Pass','Fail'});
end

If you open the source code for the Merge Test Results task, you can see that the task uses the built-in query padv.builtin.query.GetOutputsOfDependentTask as an input query.

open padv.builtin.task.MergeTestResults

...
options.InputQueries = [padv.builtin.query.GetIterationArtifact,...
    padv.builtin.query.GetOutputsOfDependentTask(...
    Task="padv.builtin.task.RunTestsPerTestCase")];
options.InputDependencyQuery = padv.builtin.query.GetDependentArtifacts;
...

When you run the Merge Test Results task, the build system runs this input query, which passes the current model and the outputs of the Run Tests task as inputs to the Merge Test Results task.

For each input, the build system checks for other artifacts that the inputs depend on by running the InputDependencyQuery. For the Merge Test Results task, the input dependency query allows the build system to find related artifacts, such as data dictionaries, that the model uses. Those dependencies can impact if the task results are up-to-date or outdated.

Capabilities and Limitations

This table identifies functionality that is supported by the query.

Functionality	Supported?
Input query for task	Yes.
Iteration query for task	No.