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.

Give the Period a descriptive Name. The Period Id is used by the program to find the period. It is recommended that you don't change the generated Id. If change it after the Period is created or you may orphan schedules that reference this Id. 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 (clock with red arrow) sets the time to the current time. The Set 12AM button sets the Start time to 12AM (one tick past midnight) and to Set the End time equal to Start time (blue down arrow). And there are buttons to set the End time to Midnight and to Set the Start time equal to the End time (blue up arrow). 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). 12AM is effectively 1 millisecond into a new day. Midnight is the end of the day (last millisecond).

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

Set the desired time period by clicking the Use Custom Times radio button, then click the Set Time Range button. Or you can use a pre-configured Time Period 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. These are Factory Default Time Periods (Period Id, Time Range)

SM01-24 Hours, 12:00 AM to Midnight (full day)
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

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 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 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