Scheduled Trigger

Introduction

Feature Overview

Scheduled Trigger enables you to trigger Automations Pro on a regular schedule, either starting from a specific time you set or from a time specified in a form. Once the trigger time is reached, Automations Pro will be triggered to handle tasks at certain action nodes.

Scenario

Scheduled Trigger is suitable for tasks that need to be completed at a specific time or according to a planned schedule. This helps guarantee the precision and timeliness of tasks.

Scenario Name	Problem Statement	Problem Solving
Task Management	How does the system automatically change the status of overdue tasks?
Equipment Inspection	How does the system automatically start an inspection workflow everyday at a fixed time and assign corresponding tasks to the person responsible for equipment inspection?	Set the trigger time to alert the person in charge at the trigger node. Then add an Add record node where you can choose a workflow form as the target form. When the trigger time is reached, Automations Pro will automatically start a workflow and assign tasks to the approver designated in the workflow form.

Preview

Take the task management as an example: When the deadline specified in the Task Management form in reached, Automations Pro will be triggered to automatically change the status of unfinished tasks as to Overdue.

How to Set

Creating an Automation

To create an automation,

1. Go to App Management > Automations.

2. Click New Automation in the upper-right corner.

3. Choose the trigger type Scheduled Trigger, and select a triggering form.

4. Click OK.

Then you will be directed to the design page.

Setting the Trigger Time

Click the trigger node, and then you can set the trigger time in the following two ways:

Type	Description	Settings	Scenario
Trigger by custom time	Trigger Automations Pro from the time you customize and trigger at the frequency you set.	Set the trigger time. Set the recurrence. Set the end time.	Suitable for scenarios where tasks are sent on a regular schedule.
Trigger by Date&Time Field	Based on the time specified in a Date&Time field in a form, adjust the time offset as needed. When this adjusted time is reached, Automations Pro will be triggered for the first time, followed by subsequent triggers at a specified frequency.	Select the Date&Time field in your form. Set the time offset (N minutes/hours/days before/at/after a specified time). Set the recurrence. Set the end time.	Suitable for scenarios where tasks are sent at an unfixed time, depending on form data.

Note:

Suppose you choose Trigger by Date&Time Field. When the trigger time specified for a record in your selected form is reached:

1. If you have added a condition, the condition will be validated. Only when the condition is met will Automations Pro be triggered.

2. Once Automations Pro is triggered, the record that caused the trigger will be captured and stored as the trigger data, which can be used at subsequent action nodes.

1. Trigger Automations Pro based on custom time.

Customize the trigger time. The time format is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM, such as "2024-3-1 16:28".

2. Trigger Automations Pro based on the Date&Time field in a form.

Select a Date&Time field in the form, such as Task End Date:

Note:

When you select Date&Time fields to set the trigger time, the fields can only be selected from forms that are in the current app.

Based on the time specified in a Date&Time field in a form, adjust the time offset as needed. Note that the offset you set may vary depending on the date/time format of the field.

a. During the form design, if you choose the following formats for the Date&Time field:

YYYY-MM
YYYY-MM-DD

Then the specified time could be a certain moment (format: HH:MM) on that day, N days before that day, or N days after that day.

b. During the form design, if you choose the following formats for the field:

YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS

Then the specified time could be several minutes/hours/days on/before/after that day.

c. Here is the sample data:

Field Type	Trigger Time	Sample Date/Time	Description
YYYY-MM YYYY-MM-DD	At 9:00 AM on the current day	December 8, 2023	Trigger Automations Pro at 9:00 AM on December 8, 2023
	At 9:00 AM seven days before the day	December 8, 2023	Trigger Automations Pro at 9:00 AM on December 1, 2023
	At 9:00 AM seven days after the day	December 8, 2023	Trigger Automations Pro at 9:00 AM on December 15, 2023
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS	Current moment	December 8, 2023 15:10:10	Trigger Automations Pro at 15:11 PM on December 8, 2023
	30 minutes before the current moment	December 8, 2023 15:10:10	Trigger Automations Pro at 14:41 PM on December 8, 2023
	30 minutes after the current moment	December 8, 2023 15:10:10	Trigger Automations Pro at 15:41 PM on December 8, 2023

Note:

Suppose you have added a condition. When the trigger time is reached, the condition will be validated first. If the condition is met, Automations Pro will be triggered.

Setting the Recurrence

Set the frequency and the end time:

Recurrence: trigger only once, trigger at a fixed interval, trigger at a custom interva;
End Time: Repetitively trigger on a regular schedule until the end time. If you would trigger it only once, the end time is not necessary.

1.Trigger Automations Pro one time only.

Trigger Automations Pro only once at a scheduled time.

2. Trigger Automations Pro at a fixed interval.

Under Recurrence, you can choose Trigger once daily, Trigger once weekly, Trigger once monthly, and Trigger once annually.

Here is the sample data:.

Trigger Time	Repetitive Period	End Time	Description
2023-12-08 15:10	Trigger only once	/	Only trigger Automations Pro once at 2023-12-08 15:11
2023-12-08 15:10	Trigger once daily	2024-12-31 23:59	Trigger Automations Pro once at 2023-12-08 15:11, then trigger it every day (next time: 2023-12-09 15:11) until 2024-12-31 23:59
2023-12-08 15:10	Trigger once weekly	2024-12-31 23:59	Trigger Automations Pro once at 2023-12-08 15:11, then trigger it every week (next time: 2023-12-15 15:11) until 2024-12-31 23:59
2023-12-08 15:10	Trigger once biweekly	2024-12-31 23:59	Trigger Automations Pro once at 2023-12-08 15:11, then trigger it every two weeks (next time: 2023-12-22 15:11) until 2024-12-31 23:59
2023-12-08 15:10	Trigger once monthly	2024-12-31 23:59	Trigger Automations Pro once at 2023-12-08 15:11, then trigger it every month (next time: 2024-01-08 15:11) until 2024-12-31 23:59
2023-12-08 15:10	Trigger once annually	2024-12-31 23:59	Trigger Automations Pro once at 2023-12-08 15:11, then trigger it every year (next time: 2024-12-08 15:11) until 2024-12-31 23:59

Note:

Suppose you have added a condition. When the trigger time is reached, the condition will be validated first. If the condition is met, Automations Pro will be triggered.

3. Trigger at a custom interval.

Only when you choose Custom under Recurrence can you set a custom repetitive period. By choosing Weekly or Monthly, Automations Pro can run on a weekly/monthly basis.

a. Trigger on a weekly basis.

You can set the trigger period as every N weeks and specify which day or days in the week to trigger Automations Pro. For example, for daily report collection, you can configure Automations Pro to be triggered only from Monday to Friday to send notice of collection.

b. Trigger on a monthly basis

You can set the trigger period as every N months and specify which day or days in the month to trigger Automations Pro. For example, if you need to do a quarterly review, you can configure Automations Pro to be triggered every three months on the last day of a month.

When you select the date to repeat by month, there are Specified Date and Relative Date available.

Specified Date: Select a specific day or days to trigger, if you choose the thirty-first day, then it will not trigger Automation Pro when there is only thirty days or fewer in that month.
Relative Date: It is supportable to set the trigger time as the last day in a period of time. Then if there are 30 days in a month, trigger Automation Pro on the thirtieth day. If there are 31 days, then trigger it on the thirty-first day.

Setting the Conditions

If you choose to trigger Automations Pro based on a Date&Time field, you can set trigger conditions.

If you set trigger conditions, then when it reaches the trigger time, the trigger conditions will be verified first. If passed, then Automations Pro will be triggered.

Click Add Condition, then the things required to be set and descriptions are as follows:

Settings	Description
Relationships between multiple conditions	When there are multiple triggering conditions, you can choose to satisfy all of or any of the conditions all of: The relationship between triggering conditions is "and", so only when all the conditions are met can the following actions be triggered any of: The relationship between triggering conditions is "or", so when any of the conditions is met, the following actions could be triggered
Triggering fieldsÅ	Select the fields in the triggering form: The supported field types include: main form fields, workflow status fields, extension fields, system fields (Created User, Created Time, and Updated Time) The unsupported field types include: Divider, Subform, Query Data, Select Data, Phone, Current Node, and Current director
Filter relationships	Set different types of filter relationships based on different triggering fields, such as equals, not equals to, equals to any, not equals to any, contains, does not contain, is empty, and is not empty
Filter value	Determined by triggering fields and filter relationships, may be single value, multiple values, options, text, or none

Notes

1. The scheduled trigger time has an accuracy down to minutes.

2. When the type of trigger time is Based on the Date&Time Field in the Form, the maximum records to be triggered at the same moment on a scheduled time is 500.