Task Manager Application

Job and task definitions happen from within the web-based console using the workflow designer as we have seen so far. The Zoom application that comes in handy to actually run, track and monitor the job and tasks is the Task Manager.

The job is started on creation if it is automatic, or can be started manually from this interface too by clicking the arrow icon next to the job name in the list. Once a job is started, the first task of the job is ready to be started too.

The Task Manager Window

The Task Manager lists all the tasks belonging to the logged in user similar to an email inbox. The tasks are sorted based on their status. You can click on any status on the left side panel to view the tasks of that status. From the list of tasks so listed, you can click and select one to view more details.

You can sign into tasks, sign off tasks and you can also periodically synchronize with the Zoom server to bring in any changes in the workflow details.

As you can see from the screenshot, the details of the assets assigned, due date, task type etc. are displayed here. The phase number indicates the number of iterations a task has undergone. It is possible that an assignment task that was reviewed got rejected and had to be redone. In such cases, the phase number is bumped up and the iteration is accounted for.

You can view the job details, overall progress, individual task progress status etc. from this window by selecting the appropriate options at the top menu bar.

Additionally, you can also launch various other Zoom components like the Asset Browser, the Repository Browser, the Visual Approval tool, the Change-Log listing and the workflow designer in the web-based console from within the Task Manager.

Launching Task Manager

  1. From the creative tool plugin: see this article.
  2. From the Zoom desktop Asset Browser:
  3. Windows: Z menu from Task Bar
    MacOS X: Z menu in Mac Menu Bar

Accept Selected Task to Sign-in

You could sign into a task that is ready to be started using the top toolbar option  

Task Manager Application
Task Manager Application

Accepting or signing into a task checks out the assets of that task onto your system. From this working copy, you can then execute the task at hand, by modifying the assets present and possibly by creating new ones.

Re-assign task to another user

The task owner can re-assign the task to another Zoom user:

This feature could be used in the following scenario: Initially, all the tasks are assigned to a supervisor, who can then distribute the task to specific user by re-assigning from the task manager.

Task Filters

Under the “All” node there are several system defined filters already available. For instance “Started” to view tasks in-progress; “Rejected” to view tasks rejected by the reviewers.

Besides those, the user can set up their own custom labels under “My Filters”. To do this:

  1. Double Click on the “My Filter” label to bring up the add filter dialog
  2. This will add a new filter label. Drag-n-drop tasks under the selected label to group them:

    When dropping, the task the drop indicator may come up with a “no drop” icon, ignore that and continue to drop the task. To delete the task from a label, just double click on the task under the label.

  3. To delete a filter label, double-click on the label:   

Search by Job or Task Metadata

If there are too many tasks in the Task Manager, the user can filter the tasks using custom job/task metadata entered into the job or task info panel:

Submit Selected Task to Sign-off

Once you have completed the necessary work, you can commit your changes. You can simultaneously sign off the task too as shown in the screenshot below.

Click on the  top toolbar button to bring up the sign-off dialog.

 

You can choose to sign off the task without making changes to all the assets that are part of it. In that case, select “Force partial sign-off” option in the dialog box to indicate this.

In order to sign-off with a specific revision of assets or new assets ingested into Zoom, please click the “Choose..” revision button and selected the change-set corresponding to the new revisions ingested into Zoom. The “Changes” dialog will only show the changes made by the task owner after they started working on the task. This makes it easy to select one or more revisions that the task owner wishes to route to the next step.

Once the assets are selected and the task owner signs-off the task status will change automatically.

Tracking Status

Progress Tracking from Task Manager

Role Required: A task owner, project managers not assigned to the task need to use the web interface described below.

You can view the progress of the workflow from the Task Manager’s Job Details menu option. This gives the overall workflow progress.

  1. Click on  (the Job details) icon in the Task Manager top toolbar.
  2. The job metadata (if available) and overall job progress will be displayed in a separate tab:

Status Display in Workflow Designer

Role Required: A project manager who is in the “projectadmin” role for the Zoom project assigned to the job

 

The workflow designer too depicts the progress status of the job on the whole and also the individual tasks by means of small icons as highlighted in the screenshot below.

 In addition, the analytic & workflow reports can also be used to view progress.

Notifications

Email notifications are sent to task owners and project managers at various milestones of the workflow including changes to the workflow status such as deletion of a task or re-assigning a task to another user.

There are also system tray notifications displayed at these milestones if the Zoom Task Manager is running in the background (a recommended practice):

 

 

On MacOS X, Growl-enabled notifications can also be displayed.

Customizing E-mail Notification

It is possible to customize the look and feel of these notifications including the branding. In the server configuration folder (conf/), you would find HTML templates of these notifications under a folder named “mail-templates”. You can edit these .html files to customize it according to your (organization’s) requirements. A detailed how-to is available here.

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