Schedule Editing
Schedule Editor
The
Schedule Editor allows you to create a highly flexible schedule. The editor is composed of expandable sections of attributes. Click a section header to expand or collapse the section.
You can test the schedule's
date configuration by clicking the
Test Schedule button. The schedule will be tested against future dates starting with today's date and running for a test duration of 180 days. Dates that match the schedule date criteria will be listed (dates when the schedule will fire). The test duration can be changed in the Automator under menu
Schedule -- Test Schedule Dates -- Set Test Duration .
Time Range Editor
To invoke the
Time Range Editor , click the
Set Time Range button in the Start and End Times section (see Figure 2b). The Time Range indicates a range when the scheduled item is allowed to start by the scheduler. Once started, a script will run to completion (all steps will execute) regardless of the End time. When Start and End times are equal, it represents a point in time (displayed as 8:00AM to (=) ).
The Scheduler behavior with respect to time settings is:
-
If you start the Scheduler before a script's (or step) Start time, the script will begin executing at its Start time.
-
If you start the Scheduler at some time within a script's Time Range, the script will begin executing immediately.
-
If you start the Scheduler after a script's End time, the script will be ignored and will NOT be scheduled to run.
Setting a Time Range is useful in cases when you may not always start the Scheduler before a script's Start time. Or in cases where a scheduled Play step and Run Script step may not be executed before the Start time. A scheduled step is not added to the Scheduler plan until the script that contains it starts to run.
Set Start and End time with the
Time Picker controls
There are quick-set buttons to the right of the Time picker controls. The
Set to Now button sets the time to the current time. There are buttons to set the Start time to
12AM and to
Set the End time equal to Start time . And there are buttons to set the End time to
Midnight and to
Set the Start time equal to the End time . The End time must always be either equal to or later than the Start time (an error indicator is displayed when End is earlier than Start).
Figure 1. Time Range Editor
Start and End Times
You can set a custom time range by clicking the
Set Time Range button (see Figure 2b).
Time Periods
You can use a pre-configured Time Period (rather than a custom time range) by checking the
Use a Time Period radio button. Then pick a Time Period from the pulldown selector. (see Figure 2a). The power of Time Periods is that when you change the values of an existing Time Period, any schedule that references that Time Period will get the new values.
There are factory default Time Periods (id-period:
SM01-24 Hours, 12:00 AM to Midnight;
SM02-Early AM, 12:00 AM to 6:00 AM;
SM03-Morning, 6:00 AM to 12:00 PM;
SM04-Afternoon, 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM;
SM05-Evening, 6:00 PM to Midnight).
But you can create your own.
The Time Period Id is the key used to tie a schedule to a Time Period. The id can be changed. Ids can be any number of characters but are more efficient when kept to 4 charaters or less. If you change an Id, schedules that already reference that time period id will become invalid. In this case, simply recreate the time period with the related id. Also, you should not have duplicate ids (two time periods with the same id). A List Validation Check will find duplicates.
Figure 2a. Using Time Periods
Date Repeat Settings
Pick the repeat frequency (daily, weekly, or monthly by date) on the
Date Repeat pulldown menu (see Figure 2b). You can change the repeat interval by checking the
Every checkbox and setting the interval ( for example, every 2 days, every 3 days, etc). The interval is tested based on the Start Date of the Date Range. The interval units change based on the repeat frequency used (ie. days, weeks or months). You can also exclude occurrences that fall on a weekend by checking the
Exclude when date occurs on a weekend checkbox.
Note that the "Every (repeat interval)" and "Exclude when date occurs on a weekend" settings will override settings made for the Weekly and Monthly settings. So for example, if you are excluding weekends and you selected first day of the month, the schedule will not fire if the first day of the month falls on a weekend day.
Schedule Favorite
To set the current schedule from the Favorites, click the
Set from Favorites button (see Figure 2b). You can set the current schedule as a Favorite by clicking the
Save as Favorites button.
To set the current schedule from the program Defaults, click the
Set from Defaults button.
Figure 2b. Schedule Editor - Daily settings
Date Range
You can apply a Date Range by checking the
Limit to a Date Range checkbox (see Figure 3). When applied, a date must fall inside the Date Range to pass the schedule test. If no Date Range is applied, a date must be later than or equal to the Start date. Use the
Date Picker controls to set a Start and End date of the range.
There are quick set buttons to set a date to
Today's date and to
Set End date from Start date or
Set Start date from End date . You can also quickly set the range to a duration of a number of days (starting from the Start date) by clicking the
Set Range Duration to button.
Figure 3. Schedule Editor - Date Range settings
Weekly Settings
Select the days of the week you want the item scheduled (see Figure 4). There are quick set buttons to
Select All ,
Clear All , select
Week Days only, and select
Weekend Days only. Check the
Limit by Monthly Occurrence checkbox if you want to limit to a specific monthly occurrence (for example, the first or last Monday of the month).
Tip - If you want every day of the week scheduled, set the repeat frequency to Daily rather than using Weekly settings. It is more efficient when processing schedules.
Multi-Select Note: You can select multiple items in the listboxes as follows. To select a range of items, click the first item in the range, then hold the Shift key and select the last item. To select or de-select multiple non-contiguous items, hold the Ctrl key and mouse click each item.
Figure 4. Schedule Editor - Weekly settings
Monthly Settings
Select the dates of the month you want the item scheduled (see Figure 5). There are quick set buttons to
Select All ,
Clear All , and select
Last Day of the month.
Tip - If you want every day of the month scheduled, set the repeat frequency to Daily rather than using Monthly settings. It is more efficient when processing schedules.
Also, see the Multi-Select Note in the Weekly Settings section.
Figure 5. Schedule Editor - Monthly settings
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