Introduction

Go to Automation > Tasks to create or manage a task. For more information, see Tasks - Overview.

Create a task from the Task Catalog

Create a templated task from the Task Catalog

The Task Catalog contains a variety of common, pre-defined tasks. These tasks can be quickly added to your HelloID environment with minimal effort. Documentation for tasks in the Task Catalog is available in the Task docs section.

To create a pre-defined task from the Task Catalog, follow the instructions below.

NOTE: The Task Catalog only shows tasks which are supported by the current context. For example, synchronization tasks are available in templated tasks created in the Tasks Overview, but not in inline tasks inside Self Service products.

Go to Automation > Tasks and select the Create Task button.
Find or search for the task that you wish to create. In this example, we'll add the Create Folder task.
The following screen gives you several tabs to go through and configure.
- General
  1. Name
    Provide a suitable name for this task. For this example, we will leave the default name Create folder.
  2. Agent Pool
    Choose which of your Agent Pools will be responsible for running this task. Agents in the pool must have access to the resources that the task is targeting.
- Task
  The content of this tab will differ depending on which task was chosen from the catalog. In our example, we are prompted to specify which directory configuration will be used during execution.
- Settings
  - Enabled
    Whether or not this task can run.
  - Enable Script Timeout
    Terminate the script if it runs for more than the configured number of minutes.
  - Send Mail When Succeeded
    Send an email to the specified address on task success.
  - Send Mail When Failed
    Send an email to the specified address on task failure.
  - Send Mail For Critical Events
    Send an email to the specified address when a critical event occurs in the task.
- Schedules
  Add any number of schedules for this task to run automatically. Learn more about managing task schedules here.
Select the Save button to confirm.
The newly-created task is now available on the Tasks Overview screen.
The task can now be run manually, or run on a schedule that you configured.

If you configured email alerts on the Settings tab, they are dispatched accordingly:

Create a custom PowerShell task

If the HelloID Task Catalog doesn't contain a suitable built-in task, you'll need to write a custom PowerShell script. There are a few ways to accomplish this, which are demonstrated below. For more information, see PowerShell Scripts - Overview.

Use a templated PowerShell script in a task

Create a templated PowerShell script. For this example, we'll create the Weather report script shown in that tutorial.
Go to Automation > Tasks and select the Create Task button.
Select the PowerShell link, and then select the Add button for Custom PowerShell script.
The following screen gives you several tabs to go through and configure.
- General
  1. Name
    Provide a suitable name for this task. For this example, we will use the name Task: Weather report.
  2. Agent Pool
    Choose which of your Agent Pools will be responsible for running this task. Agents in the pool must have access to the resources that the task is targeting.
- Task
  Select a PowerShell script to use as the task's Template. For this example, we'll select the templated Weather report script.
  
  When you use a templated PowerShell script as your Template, all variables defined on the script's Variables tab are copied to the task's Variables tab. In this case, any subsequent changes made to the template script's variables are not automatically carried over to the task. If you change the template script's variables, you will need to turn the Use Template toggle off and on again to re-copy them to the task.
- Settings
  - Enabled
    Whether or not this task can run.
  - Enable Script Timeout
    Terminate the script if it runs for more than the configured number of minutes.
  - Send Mail When Succeeded
    Send an email to the specified address on task success.
  - Send Mail When Failed
    Send an email to the specified address on task failure.
  - Send Mail For Critical Events
    Send an email to the specified address when a critical event occurs in the task.
- Schedules
  Add any number of schedules for this task to run automatically. Learn more about managing task schedules here.
Select the Save button to confirm.
The newly-created task is now available on the Tasks Overview. The task can now be run manually, or run on a schedule that you configured. If you configured email alerts on the Settings tab, they are dispatched accordingly:

Create an inline PowerShell script inside a task

Go to Automation > Tasks and select the Create Task button.
Select the PowerShell link, and then select the Add button for Custom PowerShell script.
The following screen gives you several tabs to go through and configure.
- General
  1. Name
    Provide a suitable name for this task. For this example, we will use the name Inline script: Weather report.
  2. Agent Pool
    Choose which of your Agent Pools will be responsible for running this task. Agents in the pool must have access to the resources that the task is targeting.
- Task
  Disable the Use Template toggle. Enter your PowerShell code in the PowerShell Script field. A script entered here is permanently encapsulated inside the current task, and cannot be used or edited elsewhere.
  
  For this example, we'll use the following script:
```
$locationEndpoint = "https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast?latitude=40.71&longitude=-74.01&hourly=temperature_2m&temperature_unit=$temperatureUnit&windspeed_unit=mph&precipitation_unit=inch"
Hid-Write-Summary -Message "Looking up New York weather" -Event Information
$response = Invoke-RestMethod -uri $locationEndpoint
Hid-Write-Summary -Message "Response: $response" -Event Information
$result = @{weather = "Current time: $($response.hourly.time[0]); current temperature: $($response.hourly.temperature_2m[0]) degrees $temperatureUnit"}
Hid-Write-Summary -Message "Result: $($result.weather)" -Event Information
Hid-Add-TaskResult -ResultValue $result
```
  On the Variables sub-tab of the Task tab, you can define local variables for use in the task's PowerShell script. To do so, select a data Type in the drop down, and enter a variable Name and Value. You can access Service Automation variables here. Select the plus (+) button to save a variable.
  
  For this example, we'll add one variable named temperatureUnit, set to the value fahrenheit.
- Settings
  - Enabled
    Whether or not this task can run.
  - Enable Script Timeout
    Terminate the script if it runs for more than the configured number of minutes.
  - Send Mail When Succeeded
    Send an email to the specified address on task success.
  - Send Mail When Failed
    Send an email to the specified address on task failure.
  - Send Mail For Critical Events
    Send an email to the specified address when a critical event occurs in the task.
- Schedules
  Add any number of schedules for this task to run automatically. Learn more about managing task schedules here.
Select the Save button to confirm.
The newly-created task is now available on the Tasks Overview.
The task can now be run manually, or run on a schedule that you configured.

If you configured email alerts on the Settings tab, they are dispatched accordingly:

Return results

Use the Hid-Add-TaskResult cmdlet to return the task's results.

Task logging

Use HelloID's built-in logging cmdlets to log messages.

Variable reference

See the Service Automation variable reference.

Manually run a task

Go to Automation > Tasks. Select a task's Play button to manually run it.
You are taken to the Progress Log while the task executes.
When the task finishes executing, you are taken to the Summary tab.