Often I need the option to output a VisualCron modified variable (e.g. output modified data from a "Read File" task, or concatenate previous output).
This is very useful, since it will allow me to reuse some generic conditions as "Continue if previous task has output", instead of creating job-customized conditions checking the output of specific tasks.

This really should be an easy task to add, since it really shouldn't do anything but reusing data, and display "No output" if no data is available for it to show.

I am thinking of a simple 40char X 20char freetext window where the user can write whatever should be used as output, including VisualCron variables etc.

Does it makes sense?

Best regards,
René Truelsen
(now running 5.6.1, and generally a very pleased VisualCron user)

Which Task are you thinking about? Any specific Task type?

Generally, we have focused on giving output control where the actual Variable is used. For example, if you want to write to a file you can write whatever you want before and after and add any Variables. This way the actual input is "clean".

There are some places where we have added extra control of output. For example in the SQL Task. This is more regarding the actual "formatting" of the output.

One problem is that if you want to add various content to the output from VisualCron (add run time) it is hard, by design, to control where you output should be. Before, after or in the middle of "normal" output.

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I am thinking of a new task, not an existing one, and what I am thinking about, well, it's basically a simple version of setting user variables or writing to a temporary file. Here you are also able to format the data using VisualCron functions before using it. But the difference is that this task doesn't take up cleanup maintenance like deleting the file afterwards, or perhaps removing the user variable after user.

Basically it just adds the ability to format runtime data (for example concanating output from other tasks) and output this to the "output" field in VisualCron. This output can thus be used in other tasks or jobs at runtime.

I ask of this task since I often need to format or re-format data using Visualcron functions/data, and these often become rather complex. So for the clarity of my Visualcron jobs this task would help out a lot.

So again, it's just a simplification of writing data to a temporary user variable.

Does it makes sense? :)

Best regards,
René