Jeremy,

I have developed the following code, but for some reason, nothing inside the execute method is getting executed! :) any guidance would be great...

global class MassUpdateParents implements Database.Batchable<sObject>{
	
	global final string query;
	
	global MassUpdateParents ()
	{
	   query = 'SELECT id, Ultimate_Parent_Account__c, Ultimate_Parent_Id__c FROM Contact';
	}
	
	global Database.QueryLocator start(Database.BatchableContext BC){
	
	   return Database.getQueryLocator(query);
	}
	
	global void execute(Database.BatchableContext BC, List<Contact> scope){
	
	  for(Contact o : scope){
	  	o.Ultimate_Parent_Account__c = o.Ultimate_Parent_Id__c;
	  }
	}
	
	
	global void finish(Database.BatchableContext BC){
	  // Get the ID of the AsyncApexJob representing this batch job  
	  // from Database.BatchableContext.    
	  // Query the AsyncApexJob object to retrieve the current job's information.  
	
	 AsyncApexJob a = [Select Id, Status, NumberOfErrors, JobItemsProcessed,
	   TotalJobItems, CreatedBy.Email
	   from AsyncApexJob where Id =:BC.getJobId()];
	
	  // Send an email to the Apex job's submitter notifying of job completion.  
	  Messaging.SingleEmailMessage mail = new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage();
	  String[] toAddresses = new String[] {a.CreatedBy.Email};
	  mail.setToAddresses(toAddresses);
	  mail.setSubject('Apex Sharing Recalculation ' + a.Status);
	  mail.setPlainTextBody('The batch Apex job processed ' + a.TotalJobItems +
	    ' batches with '+ a.NumberOfErrors + ' failures.');
	
	  Messaging.sendEmail(new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage[] { mail });
	}	
}

Controller for my visual force page:

public class UpdateParentController {

    public void batchexe() {
		MassUpdateParents batchApex = new MassUpdateParents();
		ID batchprocessid = Database.executeBatch(batchApex);
    } 

}

visualforce page:

<apex:page controller="UpdateParentController">
<!-- Begin Default Content REMOVE THIS -->
<h1>Congratulations</h1>
This is your new Page
<!-- End Default Content REMOVE THIS -->
<apex:form >
<apex:commandButton action="{!batchexe}" value="Execute"/>
</apex:form>
</apex:page>

Any clue?