Should Stop

Should Stop

Type: should-stop  ·  Package: Core Activities v1.0.8  ·  Output: bool

Since: v1.0.5

Returns true when someone asked to Stop the execution: from the Zoan Cloud portal, from the Designer or from the Agent tray. It lets the process stop at a safe point —before taking the next item, between two steps— and close cleanly, instead of being left halfway.

It does not stop anything by itself: you decide where to check it and what to do if it returns true (usually exit the loop with Break and let the cleanup run).

How it works

• It answers instantly, without waiting: you can check it on every pass of a loop at no cost.
• Once a stop has been requested, it returns true on every later check in that execution, also inside invoked playbooks and processes.
• Each time it returns true, it logs: Stop requested: finishing cleanly.

Stop and Terminate

Action	What it does	How the execution ends up
Stop	Asks the robot to stop when it finishes what it is doing. The process sees it with Should Stop.	Stopped (stopped)
Terminate	Cuts the execution off immediately. Whatever it was doing is left halfway; the finally of a Try / Catch has a few seconds to close what is open.	Cancelled (cancelled)

See States and life cycle.

Required parameters

None.

Optional parameters

None.

Output

Type	Description
bool	true if a stop of the execution was requested; false otherwise.

Example

Process a list and stop cleanly if someone asks to stop:

For Each   items = elements   itemVariable = element
 └─ activities:
      Should Stop   → output: stop
      If   condition = stop
       └─ then:
            Log     message = "Stop requested: some elements were left unprocessed."
            Break                     // the next element is not taken
      Invoke Playbook   path = "ProcessElement.json"   input = { element: element }

The element in progress always finishes; the next one doesn’t start, and whatever comes after the loop (the log, closing the application) runs normally.

Process Queue already does it

Process Queue checks for a stop before taking each item: it finishes the one in progress and leaves the rest in the queue. You don’t need Should Stop inside its body.

If the process never checks it

A process that doesn’t use Should Stop (or Process Queue) never finds out that a stop was requested and runs to the end. In that case the portal shows “Stopping…” and, after a few minutes, offers Terminate.

Common errors

This activity cannot fail: it always returns true or false.

Related activities

• Break — exit the loop when a stop is detected.
• Try / Catch — the finally also runs if the execution is terminated.
• Process Queue — honors the stop by itself.