Join Task

"type" : "JOIN"

Introduction

A JOIN task is used in conjunction with a FORK_JOIN or FORK_JOIN_DYNAMIC task. When JOIN is used along with a FORK_JOIN task, tt waits for a list of zero or more of the forked tasks to be completed. However, when used with a FORK_JOIN_DYNAMIC task, it implicitly waits for all of the dynamically forked tasks to complete.

Use Cases

FORK_JOIN and FORK_JOIN_DYNAMIC task are used to execute a collection of other tasks or sub workflows in parallel. In such cases, there is a need for these forked tasks to complete before moving to the next stage in the workflow. E.g in a notification workflow, you could have a FORK_JOIN task that may have an email notification task, a SMS notification task, a HTTP notification task. A JOIN task can specify zero or more of these notification tasks to complete before proceeding to the next step.

Configuration

Here is an example of a JOIN task. This task will wait for the completion of tasks my_task_ref_1 and my_task_ref_2 as specified by the joinOn attribute.

{
  "name": "join_task",
  "taskReferenceName": "my_join_task_ref",
  "type": "JOIN",
  "joinOn": [
    "my_task_ref_1",
    "my_task_ref_2"
  ]
}

Here is an example of a JOIN task used in conjunction with a FORK_JOIN task. The 'FORK_JOIN' spawns 3 tasks. An email_notification task, a sms_notification task and a http_notification task. Email and SMS are usually best effort delivery systems. However, in case of a http based notification you get a return code and you can retry until it succeeds or eventually give up. When you setup a notification workflow, you may decide to continue ,if you kicked off an email and sms notification. Im that case, you can decide to joinOn those specific tasks. However, the http_notification task will still continue to execute, but it will not block the rest of the workflow from proceeding.

[
  {
    "name": "fork_join",
    "taskReferenceName": "my_fork_join_ref",
    "type": "FORK_JOIN",
    "forkTasks": [
      [
        {
          "name": "email_notification",
          "taskReferenceName": "email_notification_ref",
          "type": "SIMPLE"
        }
      ],
      [
        {
          "name": "sms_notification",
          "taskReferenceName": "sms_notification_ref",
          "type": "SIMPLE"
        }
      ],
      [
        {
          "name": "http_notification",
          "taskReferenceName": "http_notification_ref",
          "type": "SIMPLE"
        }
      ]
    ]
  },
  {
    "name": "notification_join",
    "taskReferenceName": "notification_join_ref",
    "type": "JOIN",
    "joinOn": [
      "email_notification_ref",
      "sms_notification_ref"
    ]
  }
]

Here is how the output of notification_join will look like. The output is a map, where the keys are the names of task references that were being joinOn. The corresponding values are the outputs of those tasks.

{
  "email_notification_ref": {
    "email_sent_at": "2021-11-06T07:37:17+0000",
    "email_sent_to": "test@example.com"
  },
  "sms_notification_ref": {
    "sms_sent_at": "2021-11-06T07:37:17+0129",
    "sms_sent_to": "+1-xxx-xxx-xxxx"
  }
}

Input Configuration

Attribute	Description
name	Task Name. A unique name that is descriptive of the task function
taskReferenceName	Task Reference Name. A unique reference to this task. There can be multiple references of a task within the same workflow definition
type	Task Type. In this case, JOIN
joinOn	A list of task reference names, that this JOIN task will wait for completion

Output Configuration

Attribute	Description
task_ref_name_1	A task reference name that was being joinOn. The value is the output of that task
task_ref_name_2	A task reference name that was being joinOn. The value is the output of that task
...	...
task_ref_name_N	A task reference name that was being joinOn. The value is the output of that task

Examples

Simple Example

Here is an example of a JOIN task. This task will wait for the completion of tasks my_task_ref_1 and my_task_ref_2 as specified by the joinOn attribute.

{
  "name": "join_task",
  "taskReferenceName": "my_join_task_ref",
  "type": "JOIN",
  "joinOn": [
    "my_task_ref_1",
    "my_task_ref_2"
  ]
}

Example - ignoring one fork

Here is an example of a JOIN task used in conjunction with a FORK_JOIN task. The 'FORK_JOIN' spawns 3 tasks. An email_notification task, a sms_notification task and a http_notification task. Email and SMS are usually best effort delivery systems. However, in case of a http based notification you get a return code and you can retry until it succeeds or eventually give up. When you setup a notification workflow, you may decide to continue ,if you kicked off an email and sms notification. Im that case, you can decide to joinOn those specific tasks. However, the http_notification task will still continue to execute, but it will not block the rest of the workflow from proceeding.

[
  {
    "name": "fork_join",
    "taskReferenceName": "my_fork_join_ref",
    "type": "FORK_JOIN",
    "forkTasks": [
      [
        {
          "name": "email_notification",
          "taskReferenceName": "email_notification_ref",
          "type": "SIMPLE"
        }
      ],
      [
        {
          "name": "sms_notification",
          "taskReferenceName": "sms_notification_ref",
          "type": "SIMPLE"
        }
      ],
      [
        {
          "name": "http_notification",
          "taskReferenceName": "http_notification_ref",
          "type": "SIMPLE"
        }
      ]
    ]
  },
  {
    "name": "notification_join",
    "taskReferenceName": "notification_join_ref",
    "type": "JOIN",
    "joinOn": [
      "email_notification_ref",
      "sms_notification_ref"
    ]
  }
]

Here is how the output of notification_join will look like. The output is a map, where the keys are the names of task references that were being joinOn. The corresponding values are the outputs of those tasks.

{
  "email_notification_ref": {
    "email_sent_at": "2021-11-06T07:37:17+0000",
    "email_sent_to": "test@example.com"
  },
  "sms_notification_ref": {
    "sms_sent_at": "2021-11-06T07:37:17+0129",
    "sms_sent_to": "+1-xxx-xxx-xxxx"
  }
}