Tasks

On this page: Creating Tasks | Column Visibility | Task Options

After Tasks have been created, a table listing the Tasks, along with their Name, Description (if given), Type, Status, Task Information (creation date, domain, and “next run” if applicable), and Creator’s Name will be displayed.  In addition, on the right side of the table, Task Options are provided to check each task’s Progress, Manage its Runs, and Edit, Delete, or Rerun it.

The Tasks screen with a table of tasks as previously described.

Creating New Tasks

Important Note:  Only run one Task, on one Domain, at a time so as to not “bog down” the server!

If you need to create a task, follow these steps:

  1. Select the “Create New Task” button.
    The Create New Task button is highlighted on the Tasks screen.
  2. Fill out the form fields as needed.  (The various form fields are explained in more detail below.)
    1. Task Name.  Choose a name for your task. It could just be the domain name or you could use the name to indicate a specific task’s setting, for example “(Domain Name) – Quarterly Scan.”  (#1 in the screenshot below)
    2. Task description.  (Optional) A small section for task notes.  (#2 in the screenshot below)
    3. Configuration.  “Default” will be the only option available unless you’ve created a custom configuration.  (#3 in the screenshot below)
      The Create New Task screen with the Name, Description, and Configuration fields numbered according to this list.
    4. Task Type.  Choose from the following:
      1. Discovery then Verification:  This is most likely the choice you want.  Clarity will search the domain for PDFs (Discovery) and then test them against the standards (Verification).
      2. Discovery:  Clarity will search for PDFs in the domain.
      3. Verification:  Clarity will only test the PDFs that have been found in previous scans.
        The Task Type Options dropdown menu is open showing the choices previously explained in this step.
    5. Discovery Task Type.  Discovery finds HTML and PDF files.  When Clarity locates a PDF, it is considered “Discovered.”  When an HTML file is found it is considered to be “Known.”  When Clarity then crawls through that HTML file and counts the links on that page, the links become “Known” and the page that has the links on it is considered “Discovered.”  Consider this example:  You define a domain with the root page http://somedomain.com/index.html.  When you start Discovery, Clarity will count the links in “index.html.”  Say, then, that it finds 10 unique links to Page 1, Page 2, … Page 10.  Pages 1 to 10 become “Known” pages, and “index.html” has been “Discovered.”  Clarity will then scan Page 1, looking for links on that page.  Those found links become “Known” and when Clarity is done scanning Page 1, it is considered “Discovered.”  This process continues until all HTML files (links) have been Discovered.
      1. Full – A Full Discovery will start at the beginning and check the whole site.
      2. Resume –  If you choose this option then, when you choose “Re-Run,” Clarity will check to see if there are any “Known” files (from the previous “Discovery”), will discover them (count their links), and try to discover any other HTML files linked to or from those pages.   If the Discovery ended last time, meaning that all links have been followed until they didn’t go to any other files, then it won’t do anything.  If a scan is stopped for some reason, Clarity will refer to scan information that is stored in the database from that last scan and allow you to pick up where you left off.
        Note:  Only people who have access to the exact same Domain can resume a scan.  Access may be limited by roles and/or sharing.
        The Discovery Task Type dropdown menu is expanded, showing the options as described in this step.
    6. Verification Task Type.
      1. Full:  A Full Verification will test every PDF that has been discovered.  If the PDFs have been tested before, the data from this scan will be added to the historical data for this scan.
      2. Incremental:  Tip:  This type of scan is faster than the “Full” verification!
        An Incremental Verification will refer to information stored in the database from previous verifications and will only test the documents that are either new or have been changed since the last scan. For example, if a user runs a verification, finds a document that is not compliant, fixes that document, and then runs another verification, Clarity will pick up on the fact that the document has been changed and it will re-verify it. However, PDFs that are unchanged from a previous scan will not be re-verified.
        The Verification Task Type dropdown menu is expanded, showing the options as previously described.  
    7. Number of runs (the default is 1).  Indicate how many times you want to run the task, sequentially.
      Note:  If, below, you are selecting multiple domains with multiple task runs, each domain will be scanned and then Clarity will cycle through on the second run, etc.
    8. Recurrence type.  Options are:
      1. Run Immediately.  It’ll start after you take care of the options in steps 8 and 9 and select “Create.”
      2. One Time Only.  Provide server Time zone (if different from yours), the Start Date (in two digit month, two digit day, four digit year format), and the Start Time (in two digit hour, two digit minute, am/pm format).
        The fields to enter when creating a One Time Only task.
      3. Daily.  In addition to the Time zone, Start Date, and Start Time, you can also set an expiration date.  In addition, use the “Recurs every (days)” dropdown menu to set whether this scan will run every day, every other day, or on some other interval.
        The fields to enter when creating a Daily task as described in this list item.
      4. Weekly.  Input the Time zone, Start Date, and Start Time. Check the Expires checkbox and indicate an expiration date and time as well.   In the “Recurs every (days)” field, enter a number and then, below, choose the day(s) of the week.  If you choose “2” and then “Tuesday,” for example, then Clarity will run the task every other Tuesday.  You can use the checkbox “Select all” to choose all of the days of the week at once.
        The options to choose when creating a weekly recurring task.
      5. Monthly.  Input the server’s Time Zone, Start Date, and Start Time.  Check the checkbox next to Expires and set an expiration date and time as well, if needed.  Choose which month(s) to run the scans; use the “Select all” checkbox to choose all months at once.   Select the radio button next to “Days” to select a particular day (or days) of the month to scan, OR choose the radio button next to “On” and then select from the “first,” “second,” “third,” “fourth,” or “last” and then (in the “Select a day” menu) choose the day as needed.   (For example, to run scans on the third Tuesday of every month, choose “third” and then “Tuesday”).
        The fields to complete when creating a monthly recurring Clarity scan.
    9. Share With. Check the checkbox next to “Share with” and use the drop-down menus to share the task with other individual Clarity users or groups of users based on their role.
    10. Select the Domain(s).
      1. “Available Domains” lists the domains that you have access to, that can be included in the task.
      2. Select the domain(s) as needed.
        Note: If you are selecting multiple domains to test, they will be scanned in the order selected.  However, in the list of “Selected Domains,” it is possible to select a domain and then move it up or down in the list.
      3. Use the arrow buttons to add the domains to the list of “Selected Domains.”
        1. Use the first arrow to select all available domains, OR,
        2. Select your domain(s) and then use the second arrow to move those domains to the “Selected Domains” list.
        3. Use the third arrow to remove domains from the “Selected Domains” list, OR,
        4. Use the fourth arrow to move all of the domains out of the “Selected Domains” list.
          The Select Domains options when creating a new Task, as previously described.
    11. Choose the standard (or standards) to test the PDFs against.
  3. Select “Create.”

Column Visibility

Once tasks have been created, they will be displayed in a table on the Tasks screen.

Important information and details of each Task will be shown in the table, with each piece of information organized into its own column. To keep the information streamlined, you can adjust what columns are visible.

In the following screenshot, I deselected a few of the columns to make it easier to organize. You can also use this filtering technique to show or hide any of these characteristics such as the date of creation or even which task is scheduled to run next.

Task screen showing Column Visibility dropdown filtering options.

Task Options

Once tasks have been created, they will be displayed in a table on the Tasks screen.

The column labeled “Task schedule information” provides information such as when that Task was created as well as scheduling information including, if it’s a recurring task, when it’ll be run again.

The column on the far right of that table is called “Task Options” and, in that column, there are buttons to check the Progress of a task, Manage Task Runs, Edit or Delete the tasks, or to run them again.  These choices are explained in more detail below.
The Task Options are highlighted in the right side of the table on the Tasks screen.

Progress – Use this button to check the progress of a task while it’s running.

Manage Runs – After tasks have been run, use the Manage Runs button to go to the Manage Runs screen for a particular task.  There, additional options include:

  • Edit – Change a Task Run’s Name.
    Note:  This is the Edit button within the Manage Runs options, not the Edit button in the Task Options column!
  • View the run’s checkpoint Configuration – Open this to see the various standards, checkpoints, and checkpoint properties that were applied to this run.
  • View an error Log – Warnings, errors, or any fixes that Clarity may have had to apply in order to test the documents will be displayed here.
  • Delete – Delete a run (or runs) from the task.
    The Manage Runs screen with the Options column highlighted to show the choices as described in the previous list items.

Edit – Change the name, description, expiration date/time (for scheduled scans), and who this task is shared with. In addition, use the button at the lower right corner of the screen to view the standards that are applicable to this task.

The Edit Tasks screen as described in the preceding paragraph.

Delete the task.
Note:  This is different from deleting a Task Run (in the Manage Runs screen).

Cancel/Re-Run – Use the “Cancel” button when a task is running, to stop the task without deleting it. When a task is not actively running, select “Re-Run” to run the task again.