Custom Job Steps Skill

This skill guides you through creating new custom job steps for Salesforce B2C Commerce batch processing.

Running an existing job? If you need to execute jobs or import site archives via CLI, use the b2c-cli:b2c-job skill instead.

When to Use

• Creating a new scheduled job for batch processing
• Building a data import job (customers, products, orders)
• Building a data export job (reports, feeds, sync)
• Implementing data sync between systems
• Creating cleanup or maintenance tasks

Overview

Custom job steps allow you to execute custom business logic as part of B2C Commerce jobs. There are two execution models:

Model	Use Case	Progress Tracking
Task-oriented	Single operations (FTP, import/export)	Limited
Chunk-oriented	Bulk data processing	Fine-grained

File Structure

my_cartridge/
├── cartridge/
│   ├── scripts/
│   │   └── steps/
│   │       ├── myTaskStep.js       # Task-oriented script
│   │       └── myChunkStep.js      # Chunk-oriented script
│   └── my_cartridge.properties
└── steptypes.json                  # Step type definitions (at cartridge ROOT)

Important: The steptypes.json file must be placed in the root folder of the cartridge, not inside the cartridge/ directory. Only one steptypes.json file per cartridge.

Step Type Definition (steptypes.json)

{
    "step-types": {
        "script-module-step": [
            {
                "@type-id": "custom.MyTaskStep",
                "@supports-parallel-execution": "false",
                "@supports-site-context": "true",
                "@supports-organization-context": "false",
                "description": "My custom task step",
                "module": "my_cartridge/cartridge/scripts/steps/myTaskStep.js",
                "function": "execute",
                "timeout-in-seconds": 900,
                "parameters": {
                    "parameter": [
                        {
                            "@name": "InputFile",
                            "@type": "string",
                            "@required": "true",
                            "description": "Path to input file"
                        },
                        {
                            "@name": "Enabled",
                            "@type": "boolean",
                            "@required": "false",
                            "default-value": "true",
                            "description": "Enable processing"
                        }
                    ]
                },
                "status-codes": {
                    "status": [
                        {
                            "@code": "OK",
                            "description": "Step completed successfully"
                        },
                        {
                            "@code": "ERROR",
                            "description": "Step failed"
                        },
                        {
                            "@code": "NO_DATA",
                            "description": "No data to process"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            }
        ],
        "chunk-script-module-step": [
            {
                "@type-id": "custom.MyChunkStep",
                "@supports-parallel-execution": "true",
                "@supports-site-context": "true",
                "@supports-organization-context": "false",
                "description": "Bulk data processing step",
                "module": "my_cartridge/cartridge/scripts/steps/myChunkStep.js",
                "before-step-function": "beforeStep",
                "read-function": "read",
                "process-function": "process",
                "write-function": "write",
                "after-step-function": "afterStep",
                "total-count-function": "getTotalCount",
                "chunk-size": 100,
                "transactional": "false",
                "timeout-in-seconds": 1800,
                "parameters": {
                    "parameter": [
                        {
                            "@name": "CategoryId",
                            "@type": "string",
                            "@required": "true"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

Task-Oriented Steps

Use for single operations like FTP transfers, file generation, or import/export.

Script (scripts/steps/myTaskStep.js)

'use strict';

var Status = require('dw/system/Status');
var Logger = require('dw/system/Logger');

/**
 * Execute the task step
 * @param {Object} parameters - Job step parameters
 * @param {dw.job.JobStepExecution} stepExecution - Step execution context
 * @returns {dw.system.Status} Execution status
 */
exports.execute = function (parameters, stepExecution) {
    var log = Logger.getLogger('job', 'MyTaskStep');

    try {
        var inputFile = parameters.InputFile;
        var enabled = parameters.Enabled;

        if (!enabled) {
            log.info('Step disabled, skipping');
            return new Status(Status.OK, 'SKIP', 'Step disabled');
        }

        // Your business logic here
        log.info('Processing file: ' + inputFile);

        // Return success
        return new Status(Status.OK);

    } catch (e) {
        log.error('Step failed: ' + e.message);
        return new Status(Status.ERROR, 'ERROR', e.message);
    }
};

Status Codes

// Success
return new Status(Status.OK);
return new Status(Status.OK, 'CUSTOM_CODE', 'Custom message');

// Error
return new Status(Status.ERROR);
return new Status(Status.ERROR, null, 'Error message');

Important: Custom status codes work only with OK status. If you use a custom code with ERROR status, it is replaced with ERROR. Custom status codes cannot contain commas, wildcards, leading/trailing whitespace, or exceed 100 characters.

Chunk-Oriented Steps

Use for bulk processing of countable data (products, orders, customers).

Important: You cannot define custom exit status for chunk-oriented steps. Chunk modules always finish with either OK or ERROR.

Required Functions

Function	Purpose	Returns
read()	Get next item	Item or nothing
process(item)	Transform item	Processed item or nothing (filters)
write(items)	Save chunk of items	Nothing

Optional Functions

Function	Purpose	Returns
beforeStep()	Initialize (open files, queries)	Nothing
afterStep(success)	Cleanup (close files)	Nothing
getTotalCount()	Return total items for progress	Number
beforeChunk()	Before each chunk	Nothing
afterChunk()	After each chunk	Nothing

Script (scripts/steps/myChunkStep.js)

'use strict';

var ProductMgr = require('dw/catalog/ProductMgr');
var Transaction = require('dw/system/Transaction');
var Logger = require('dw/system/Logger');
var File = require('dw/io/File');
var FileWriter = require('dw/io/FileWriter');

var log = Logger.getLogger('job', 'MyChunkStep');
var products;
var fileWriter;

/**
 * Initialize before processing
 */
exports.beforeStep = function (parameters, stepExecution) {
    log.info('Starting chunk processing');

    // Open resources
    var outputFile = new File(File.IMPEX + '/export/products.csv');
    fileWriter = new FileWriter(outputFile);
    fileWriter.writeLine('ID,Name,Price');

    // Query products
    products = ProductMgr.queryAllSiteProducts();
};

/**
 * Get total count for progress tracking
 */
exports.getTotalCount = function (parameters, stepExecution) {
    return products.count;
};

/**
 * Read next item
 * Return nothing to signal end of data
 */
exports.read = function (parameters, stepExecution) {
    if (products.hasNext()) {
        return products.next();
    }
    // Return nothing = end of data
};

/**
 * Process single item
 * Return nothing to filter out item
 */
exports.process = function (product, parameters, stepExecution) {
    // Filter: skip offline products
    if (!product.online) {
        return;  // Filtered out
    }

    // Transform
    return {
        id: product.ID,
        name: product.name,
        price: product.priceModel.price.value
    };
};

/**
 * Write chunk of processed items
 */
exports.write = function (items, parameters, stepExecution) {
    for (var i = 0; i < items.size(); i++) {
        var item = items.get(i);
        fileWriter.writeLine(item.id + ',' + item.name + ',' + item.price);
    }
};

/**
 * Cleanup after all chunks
 */
exports.afterStep = function (success, parameters, stepExecution) {
    // Close resources
    if (fileWriter) {
        fileWriter.close();
    }
    if (products) {
        products.close();
    }

    if (success) {
        log.info('Chunk processing completed successfully');
    } else {
        log.error('Chunk processing failed');
    }
};

Parameter Types

Type	Description	Example Value
string	Text value	"my-value"
boolean	true/false	true
long	Integer	12345
double	Decimal	123.45
datetime-string	ISO datetime	"2024-01-15T10:30:00Z"
date-string	ISO date	"2024-01-15"
time-string	ISO time	"10:30:00"

Parameter Validation Attributes

Attribute	Applies To	Description
@trim	All	Trim whitespace before validation (default: true)
@required	All	Mark as required (default: true)
@target-type	datetime-string, date-string, time-string	Convert to long or date (default: date)
pattern	string	Regex pattern for validation
min-length	string	Minimum string length (must be ≥1)
max-length	string	Maximum string length (max 1000 chars total)
min-value	long, double, datetime-string, time-string	Minimum numeric value
max-value	long, double, datetime-string, time-string	Maximum numeric value
enum-values	All	Restrict to allowed values (dropdown in BM)

Configuration Options

steptypes.json Attributes

Attribute	Required	Description
@type-id	Yes	Unique ID (must start with custom., max 100 chars)
@supports-parallel-execution	No	Allow parallel execution (default: true)
@supports-site-context	No	Available in site-scoped jobs (default: true)
@supports-organization-context	No	Available in org-scoped jobs (default: true)
module	Yes	Path to script module
function	Yes	Function name to execute (task-oriented)
timeout-in-seconds	No	Step timeout (recommended to set)
transactional	No	Wrap in single transaction (default: false)
chunk-size	Yes*	Items per chunk (*required for chunk steps)

Context Constraints: @supports-site-context and @supports-organization-context cannot both be true or both be false - one must be true and the other false.

Best Practices

1. Use chunk-oriented for bulk data - better progress tracking and resumability
2. Close resources in afterStep() - queries, files, connections
3. Set explicit timeouts - default may be too short
4. Log progress - helps debugging
5. Handle errors gracefully - return proper Status objects
6. Don't rely on transactional=true - use Transaction.wrap() for control

Related Skills

• b2c-cli:b2c-job - For running existing jobs and importing site archives via CLI
• b2c:b2c-webservices - When job steps need to call external HTTP services or APIs, use the webservices skill for service configuration and HTTP client patterns

Detailed Reference

• Task-Oriented Steps - Full task step patterns
• Chunk-Oriented Steps - Full chunk step patterns
• steptypes.json Reference - Complete schema