Potential issues and resolutions

When executing the test procedures, certain issues can occur. The following issues and their resolutions are addressed here.

DateTime

By default, Work Tasks converts any time inputs in a workflow form to UTC time. However, most of the MES Stateless API methods assume that times are in local time. This situation can cause incorrect times to be stored in the MES database. For example, if 6 am PDT is entered in the workflow form, it is converted to UTC time and passed as 1 pm to the MES Stateless API method. The time is then incorrectly recorded in the MES database as 1 pm local time and 8 pm UTC time. Be aware that some of the API methods have overloads that use UTC time instead of local time.

To avoid this issue, you must:

• Create a DateTime variable in the Start activity for each DateTime variable in the MES XML.

• Convert the input value from the workflow form for each time DateTime variable from UTC time to local time.

• Have the DateTime variables in MES receive values from these internal variables.

This resolution is demonstrated in the example in Adding a Variable for the DateTime Input.

After creating the variables, make sure that you link the DateTime variables to their workflow form controls. The following sample Update Variable window shows two DateTime variables mapped to their workflow form controls.

Regional settings

When the MES Client and middleware are in different time zones, the DateTimes do not work correctly between the two zones unless the workaround described in DateTime is implemented on all the DateTime variables in the workflow forms.

Intermittent failures on reporting status

When testing maximum amounts, such as with JobExec.StartJob, on a slow system, there is no indication given in Work Tasks after MESXMLCommand is finished. When the bandwidth for the VPN caused it to run slowly, attempting to start a job took awhile. There was no indication given in the executing or waiting events in Work Tasks. It was later found using MES Client that the job was started, but a Completed message was never received in the workflow.