Creating a Schedule

This topic describes the procedure to create a schedule.

By scheduling activities, you can ensure that a set of actions is executed at a set of preset times. For example, if you want to trigger a Web service that summarizes orders at the end of each business day, you may set a schedule to be triggered at 17:30 pm everyday.

1. Select a starting point and click to open the schedule modeler.
2. Provide Name and Description for the schedule.
3. Provide the number of times that the schedule must be triggered in the Count box.

   Note: Depending upon the type of schedule selected in the Type drop-down list below, the schedule is triggered the number of times specified in the Count box. For example, if you specify Count as three and set the Type as Every hour at minute, the schedule triggers three times, at every one hour on the minute specified from the time it is deployed. To run the schedule infinitely, provide the count value as -1.

4. Select the Auto Deploy option to have a schedule triggered when it is published or deployed.

   Note:

   • If the schedule model with this option enabled is deployed or published, an instance of the schedule model is created when it is deployed or published into the organization.
   • If the schedule model with this option enabled is deployed into the Shared space, a schedule instance is not created. This model is displayed on the Inactive Schedules tab of Schedule Manager in all the organizations. The creation of the schedule instance, that is deployment of the schedule for this model is possible across multiple organizations.
   • If this option is not selected, the schedule models are visible on the Inactive Schedules tab of the Schedule Manager task upon publishing them. Refer to Deploying a Schedule for more information.
5. Select the schedule type from the Schedule Type list box in the schedule modeler. Depending upon the schedule type selected, the schedule table below displays the required columns accordingly. For more information on types of schedules, refer to Types of Schedules.
6. Click , and specify the date and time at which the schedule is to be executed in the row that is added to the table below.

   Remember: Use the following guidelines while specifying the date and time:

   • The Hour and minutes must be specified in the 24 Hr format. For example, to indicate the time as 10:30 PM, specify it as 22 Hours and 30 minutes.
   • The time specified must correspond to the time in the server you access.
   • For hourly schedules, specify the minute of the hour in the Every hour at minute box.
   • For daily schedules, select the time of the day in the Hour and Minute columns.
   • For weekly schedules, select the day of the week from the Every Week Day At drop-down list, and provide the time of the day in the Hour and Minute columns.
   • For monthly schedules, select the day of the month from the Every Month on Day drop-down list, and provide the time of the day in the Hour and Minute columns.
   • For first day of month schedules, select the time of the day in the Hour and Minute columns.
   • For last day of month schedules, select the time of the day in the Hour and Minute columns.
   • For first weekday of month schedules, select the time of the day in the Hour and Minute columns.
   • For last weekday of month schedules, select the time of the day in the Hour and Minute columns.
   • For fortnightly schedules, select the time of the day in the Hour and Minute columns.
   • For duration schedules, specify the duration after which the schedule must be triggered in the Time text box.
   • For an instant schedule (Run Now), provide the name of the schedule and the target information. The schedule is triggered and executed instantaneously upon deployment. For Run Now type of schedules, the Count is by default specified as 1.

   Note: At times, there may be delays in executing the schedule. The execution time of the schedule may not match the defined schedule time due to the following reasons:

   • The schedule instances may be queued for execution, and based on the load at that moment, there may be a delay of a few seconds for the defined schedule to trigger.
   • When the schedule triggers an instance of a Business Process Model (BPM), the request further may be queued at the Business Process service container. The time for the instance creation depends on the load on the service container.
   • There may be network traffic or slow responses from the database. This behavior applies both for the schedules created directly or created implicitly when elements like Delay and Timeout are defined in a BPM.
   • If a schedule is triggered after the 50th second of a minute, and it tries to instantiate an instance of a BPM, due to the queues and delays, the instance creation at the Business Process service container can finally happen at the next minute. For example, even when a schedule to create a process instance is defined at '9/20/2013 9:23:52 AM', the actual process instance creation may happen only at '9/20/2013 9:24:02 AM'.
7. Select the target from the Target Document Type drop-down list, and click icon to select the required Web service or Business Process Model. The name and definition of the selected Web service or Business Process Model is displayed in the Target and Request XML boxes respectively. You must provide the appropriate parameter values to the Web service or Business Process Model.
8. Click on the toolbar to save the schedule. A Save Document dialog box is displayed if you are creating the schedule from CUSP > My Applications.
9. Provide a name and meaningful description of the schedule in the Name and Description boxes respectively in the Save Document dialog box.
10. Click for Location, select a location to save this schedule, and click OK.
    The required schedule is created and added to the project.

    After you complete this task: To deploy the schedule, right-click the schedule document and select Publish to Organization.

Note: Ensure that the relevant schedule service container is running while publishing schedules to the organization.