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Example on What Tasks are

Understanding Tasks in a Frends Process

Ossi Galkin avatar
Written by Ossi Galkin
Updated over 9 months ago

What are Tasks

Tasks in Frends are the smallest unit of work, a single action that you can perform.
Here are some things you can do with Tasks:

  • Query Microsoft SQL Server database (or some other database)

  • Make an HTTP REST request

  • Transform XML using XSLT

  • Call a webservice

  • ... and much more

In essence, Tasks are pre-packaged pieces of code that take input parameters and produce output. Inputs and outputs differ for different Tasks. For example, in the case of an SQL query to a database, you usually need to provide the Task with the query that you want to execute, along with the connection string to that database. The Task will then be executed as part of your Frends Process, and the Task results will contain the data returned by the database in response to your query.

Here's an example of how a Task looks in a Process (disconnected in the example):

Task technicalities and management

Tasks in Frends are created using the C#/.NET stack, packaged into NuGet packages, and then imported to Frends. Thus, a Task is compiled C#/.NET code that runs on Frends Agents. Most of the time, you can find the Task source code on GitHub, as the majority of our Tasks are open-sourced, making it easy for anyone to see what exactly is being done on the code level.

Tasks are imported into Frends through the Task View under the Administration List View, which is covered in another course. For now, it is good to know that Tasks can be imported in the form of NuGet packages from your computer and via NuGet package feeds. By default, only official Frends Task feeds are included in every Frends tenant, but it is possible to add your own feed if you want to author your own Tasks for Frends.

The next article is Example on How to add a task

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