What are Background Tasks?

In PLM's daily operations, especially batch operations, some tasks can take a significant amount of time (e.g., import/scan/copy/scrape). Besides waiting for task completion in a foreground progress dialog, PLM offers a background task processing method: running time-consuming tasks in the background without affecting the user's other operations, such as browsing/playing/editing. Background tasks will display their progress information in the bottom status bar on the right side, and can be managed using the "Background Tasks" (Ctrl+T) manager.

Enabling Background Tasks

There are several ways to add a background task:

  1. When performing batch processing on selected records, after clicking "Go," a "Select operator and action" window appears. After selecting an action (e.g., scrape), click the "Background" button.
  2. When importing files, click the "BG Go" button to start the background import.
  3. When adding a new media library directory, select "Background Scan."
  4. Performing an "Update Scan" on selected media library directories will run in the background.
  5. Certain specific tasks, such as automatic backups, will run in the background.

Background Task Management

Clicking the "Background Tasks" button on the toolbar opens the Background Task Manager, where you can view the background task list, status, and task output information. You can pause/resume/end/slow down background tasks, and set them to shut down or exit after completion.

Canceling the Current Background Task

When a background task is running, the status bar at the bottom of the main interface displays a "Cancel" button, making it easy for users to cancel the current background task.

Pausing Background Tasks During Playback

In the "Settings" dialog, you can set "Player.Pause tasks when playing" to control whether to pause background tasks when playing files.

Disadvantages of Background Tasks