Task Template for ENVI 5.3

This topic describes the fields (also called keys) in a task template for use with ENVI 5.3.

Task Keys

The following table describes the keys that provide an overview of the task. The "Mapping to ENVITask Routine" field lists the keys' corresponding ENVITask properties.

Key	Required	Description	Mapping to ENVITask Routine
`name`	Yes	A string with the name of the task, excluding the prefix `ENVI` and the suffix `Task`.	NAME
`baseClass`	Yes	A string with the name of the class to use; the most common is ENVITaskFromProcedure. Use ENVIMetatask if you are creating a metatask. See Metatasks for details. Use ENVIAbortableTaskFromProcedure to allow your custom task to have a progress dialog with an option to cancel the process. See Messaging for details. You can also write your own base class to simplify the process of writing custom tasks that use a common set of parameters and application behavior. See Custom Base Classes for more information.
`routine`	No	The routine that is called when `Task.Execute` is invoked.
`displayName`	No	A string with the name of the task as it appears to the end user. Spaces and special characters are allowed. This key is used by tasks that display a dynamic user interface for entering parameters. See ENVIUI::SelectTaskParameters for details.
`description`	Yes	A string with a description of the task.	DESCRIPTION
`commuteOnDownsample`	No	A string that indicates if raster processing is affected by downsampling before program execution. A value of `Yes` indicates that the raster can be downsampled before execution, yielding the same result as downsampling the output raster. A value of `No` means that the raster should not be downsampled before execution. This key is used by the dynamic task UI to determine Preview accuracy.	COMMUTE_ON_DOWNSAMPLE
`commuteOnSubset`	No	A string that indicates if raster processing is affected by subsetting before program execution. For example, your algorithm may rely on statistics of the entire dataset to get accurate results. A value of `Yes` indicates that the raster can be subsetted before execution. A value of `No` means that the raster should not be subsetted before execution. This key is used by the dynamic task UI to determine Preview accuracy.	COMMUTE_ON_SUBSET
`version`	No	A string listing the earliest version of ENVI that the task will work with.
`parameters`	No	A container of key/value pairs, described in the Parameter Keys section next.

Parameter Keys

The following table describes the keys that belong to the parameters group in a task template; these are repeated for each parameter. The "Mapping to ENVITaskParameter" field lists the keys' corresponding property names in ENVITaskParameter.

Key	Required	Description	Mapping to ENVITaskParameter
`name`	Yes	The name of the parameter as it appears to the end user.	NAME
`keyword`	No	The internal keyword that the parameter should map to. If it is the same as the NAME key, then you do not need to set `keyword`.
`displayName`	No	The name of the task as it appears to the end user. This key is used by tasks that display a dynamic user interface for entering parameters. See ENVIUI::SelectTaskParameters for details.	DISPLAY_NAME
`dataType`	Yes	A scalar string with one of the following: IDL data type: `Byte`, `Int`, `Long`, `Float`, `Double`, `Complex`, `String`, `DComplex`, `UInt`, `ULong`, `Long64`, or `ULong64` The required class for the parameter (for example, `ENVIRaster`, `ENVIVector`, or `ENVIROI`) Boolean type (`Bool`) ENVIURI: Indicates that a string is required that references a local or remote file source. If the parameter requires more than one scalar, the string contains additional information on array dimensions. Example of a three-element array declaration: `FLOAT[3]` Example of a 1D array with any number of elements: `INT[]` Example of a 2D array with any number of columns or rows: `INT[,]` Example of a 2D array with a specific number of elements: `BYTE[3,256]` Example of a 2D array with any number of columns and 3 rows: `INT[,3]`	TYPE
`direction`	Yes	Specify if the parameter is `input` or `output`.	DIRECTION
`parameterType`	No	Specify if the parameter is `required` or `optional` (default) in order for the task to execute.	REQUIRED
`description`	Yes	A description of the parameter.	DESCRIPTION
`choiceList`	No	A string array that lists the possible values for the property. Any IDL data type is supported. You can also map from user-friendly strings to an internal lookup table of values if desired.	CHOICE_LIST
`defaultValue`	No	The default value of the parameter if the end user does not provide a value. If you set this key, you should also set `parameterType` to `optional` to allow ENVI Services Engine (ESE) users to run the task without having to provide a parameter value.	DEFAULT
`min`	No	A value that is greater than or equal to the minimum value allowed for the parameter.	MIN
`max`	No	A value that is less than or equal to the maximum value allowed for the parameter.	MAX
`hidden`	No	Set this key to `true` if the parameter is required for the task but you do not want to expose it to the end user. You must also set the `defaultValue` key to the desired value for the parameter to be set internally.

Revision History

This section summarizes the updates to task templates, compared to the previous release:

The ENVIMetatask base class was introduced.
The ENVIAbortableTaskFromProcedure base class was introduced.
You can write your own custom base class.
The dataType parameter key now accepts ENVIVector and ENVIROI data types, in addition to ENVIRaster.

Task Template for ENVI 5.3

Task Keys

Parameter Keys

Revision History

See Also