Variable limit on catalog tasks?

[Dan Hinrichs]

We've got a service that has a lot of variables and when trying to add them, we've noticed there is a point where variables can no longer be added. We're able to move the variables from the left hand side of the variables list to the right hand side and then save the catalog task normally, but when we go back into the catalog task the variables we'd moved over didn't "stick" in the right hand side.

Is there a specific limit to the number of variables that can be added to a catalog task? If so, is this a hard limit or is there a setting somewhere that changes the maximum number of variables that can be included in a catalog task?

[#2]

Hi,

Navigate to "Workflow - Activity Definitions". Select "Catalog Task" from the list.
On the "Activity Variables" related list, click "task_variables".
Note the "task_variables" variable has a maximum length of 4000.
Make this bigger to accomodate more variables in the slush bucket. I have used a value of 10000 in the past.

Hope this answers your question.

Regards

[Dan Hinrichs]

Thanks Laurens, that helps a lot. Do you know what the task_variables number measures? I ask because I counted the number of variables I could add to a particular catalog task was 242 and our task_variables value was 4000. Is task_variables possibly a count of the number of characters in variables included in the catalog task?

[Paul Porter]

Phew!   Thanks Laurens and John.   I didn't take the time to look up any more resources about this funny little default setting since this was the first thing I looked at with a solution to my problem.   I was beating my head against the wall on this one and HI wasn't even aware of this limitation.   Anyway... THANKS!!!

[john_lamberta]

Yes, you are correct. The limit of 4000 is based on a comma-seperated list of variable names. Therefore the number of variables you can fit is dependent on how they are named.