Managing tasks
Most processing and analysis operations in J-AST run as background tasks using the JIPipe image processing engine. This page explains how tasks work, how to monitor their progress, and how to manage them.
How tasks work
When you start a processing operation (e.g., plate detection, analysis), J-AST creates a background task that runs a JIPipe workflow. The task goes through the following states:
- Ready
The task has been created and is waiting for a free worker.
- Running
The task is being executed by a JIPipe worker process.
- Successful
The task completed without errors.
- Failed
The task encountered an error and could not complete.
Project locking
While any task is in the Ready or Running state, the project is locked. During this time:
Image metadata cannot be edited
Images cannot be uploaded or deleted
The project cannot be renamed or deleted
The project type cannot be changed
A "Currently being processed" indicator appears in the properties panel, and a progress overlay is shown at the bottom of the canvas.
Monitoring progress
Click the button (cyan) in the top toolbar to open the task log viewer. This page displays:
A list of all tasks for the current project, with status icons (✓ = successful, ✗ = failed, spinner = running)
The task name and creation date
A live log output (polled automatically while the task is running)
A progress bar parsed from the log output
Canceling a task
If a task is running and you want to stop it, open the task log viewer, select the task, and click the button.
Downloading logs
After a task has finished (successfully or failed), you can download the full log file by selecting the task and clicking the button. This is useful for debugging or for sharing with support.
Clearing task history
To remove completed tasks from the list, click the button in the task log viewer. This removes all tasks regardless of their status.