Overview

A very simple sequential, extensible task execution framework. (It's technically a DAG :P but yeah it's just a list of tasks to run in serial)

Details

• Task (task.rb): A small unit of work. In your process.yaml each task has:

  • type: Task classname. The class must extend the Task class. Instance of the task is created with reflection.

  • input: A hash object that will be passed into the task constructor. Can contain anything.

  • parent_task_name: An optional reference to another task that is part of the process. A reference to that task will be stored on this task which allows easily utilising its output.

• Process: (process.rb): A collection of sequential tasks to be performed.

  • A simple example of a process is defined in data/simple_example_process.yaml

General:

• Define your process with multiple Tasks
• Extend Tasks class to implement the behaviour of your newly defined Tasks
  • The magic should happen in perform
• Create an instance of Process and pass in your process yaml file. Task instances will be created for you.
• Call run on your process instance
• Profit?

How to run

1. Install gems e.g. bundle install
2. Run stepper.rb with Ruby to see an example

TODOS

• Status & Result fields
• Multiple Parent Tasks
• Name passed to init
• Error checks
  • Check that references exist
  • Useful errors
• Auto task ordering. Maybe just at a very basic level
• Refactor deserialisation into base Task
• Bells and whistles
  • Pretty print output
  • Summaries
  • UI