Timer

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Chapter 5 General Activities Palette : Timer

Timer

Process Starter

The Timer process starter starts a process at a specific time. You can also specify that processes are to be started periodically.

Configuration

The Configuration tab has the following fields.

Field

Global Var?

Description

Name

No

The name to appear as the label for the activity in the process definition.

Description

No

Short description of the activity.

Start Time

Yes

The day and time to start the process. If the process is to be run periodically, then the start time indicates the first time to run the process.

The local machine’s time zone is used to determine when the process should start. If the project is run on machines in different time zones, the time zone of the machine where the project was saved is used. Use a global variable in this field to supply start times relative to the time zone where the project is deployed.

If you supply a global variable for this field, the format of the specified time must be the following:

yyyy MMM dd HH:mm:ss z

For example, "2004 Apr 28 20:35:11 EST". The z at the end of the date format is the name of the time zone. See Time Zone Names for a list of time zone names.

Run once

No

Indicates this process should be run only once at the day and time indicated by the Start Time field. If unchecked, the Time Interval and Interval Unit fields appear to allow you to specify the frequency of the process.

Time Interval

Yes

Integer indicating the number of units specified in the Interval Unit field. For example, if a value of 1 is specified and the Interval Unit field is specified as Hour, a new process is started every hour beginning at the time specified in the Start Time field.

If a value of 2 is specified and the Interval Unit field is specified as Month, a process is started every other month, beginning at the time specified in the Start Time field.

If the value specified is less than one second (1000 milliseconds), the timer ignores the specified interval and is triggered once every second.

Note: If you use a global variable for this field, the global variable specifies the time interval in milliseconds and the Interval Unit field is not displayed.

Interval Unit

No

Unit of time to use with the Time Interval field to determine how often to start a new process. The units can be: Millisecond, Second, Minute, Hour, Day, Week, Month, Year.

Misc

The Misc tab contains the following fields:

Field

Description

Sequencing Key

This field can contain an XPath expression that specifies which processes should run in order. Process instances with sequencing keys that evaluate to the same value will be executed sequentially in the order the process instance was created.

See TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks Process Design for more information about controlling the execution order of process instances and about XPath expressions.

Custom Id

This field can contain an XPath expression that specifies a custom ID for the process instance. This ID is displayed in the View Service dialog of TIBCO Administrator, and it is also available in the $_processContext process variable.

Output

The output for the activity is the following.

Output Item

Datatype

Description

TimerOutputSchema

The time the process instance started. The time is represented by several items in the output schema indicating the hour, minute, second, and so on. Each item uses the appropriate datatype.

Field	Global Var?	Description
Name	No	The name to appear as the label for the activity in the process definition.
Description	No	Short description of the activity.
Start Time	Yes	The day and time to start the process. If the process is to be run periodically, then the start time indicates the first time to run the process. The local machine’s time zone is used to determine when the process should start. If the project is run on machines in different time zones, the time zone of the machine where the project was saved is used. Use a global variable in this field to supply start times relative to the time zone where the project is deployed. If you supply a global variable for this field, the format of the specified time must be the following: yyyy MMM dd HH:mm:ss z For example, "2004 Apr 28 20:35:11 EST". The z at the end of the date format is the name of the time zone. See Time Zone Names for a list of time zone names.
Run once	No	Indicates this process should be run only once at the day and time indicated by the Start Time field. If unchecked, the Time Interval and Interval Unit fields appear to allow you to specify the frequency of the process.
Time Interval	Yes	Integer indicating the number of units specified in the Interval Unit field. For example, if a value of 1 is specified and the Interval Unit field is specified as Hour, a new process is started every hour beginning at the time specified in the Start Time field. If a value of 2 is specified and the Interval Unit field is specified as Month, a process is started every other month, beginning at the time specified in the Start Time field. If the value specified is less than one second (1000 milliseconds), the timer ignores the specified interval and is triggered once every second. Note: If you use a global variable for this field, the global variable specifies the time interval in milliseconds and the Interval Unit field is not displayed.
Interval Unit	No	Unit of time to use with the Time Interval field to determine how often to start a new process. The units can be: Millisecond, Second, Minute, Hour, Day, Week, Month, Year.

Field	Description
Sequencing Key	This field can contain an XPath expression that specifies which processes should run in order. Process instances with sequencing keys that evaluate to the same value will be executed sequentially in the order the process instance was created. See TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks Process Design for more information about controlling the execution order of process instances and about XPath expressions.
Custom Id	This field can contain an XPath expression that specifies a custom ID for the process instance. This ID is displayed in the View Service dialog of TIBCO Administrator, and it is also available in the $_processContext process variable.

Output Item	Datatype	Description
TimerOutputSchema		The time the process instance started. The time is represented by several items in the output schema indicating the hour, minute, second, and so on. Each item uses the appropriate datatype.