CRON Import
- Brian Banet
This capture only node facilitates import processing for capture at specific time intervals, as specified through a CRON expression. CRON is job scheduler in Unix based operating systems, but it’s expression format is widely accepted as the standard for shorthand notation of a schedule, making it a perfect fit for tasks that require more discrete scheduling than a standard import node provides.
A web search will return numerous quality results to better help you understand CRON expressions. We also recommend this one for building and understanding expressions.
A typical expression will be broken down into 5 positions separated by a space, in the form:
Minute | Hour | Day of Month | Month | Day of Week |
|---|
Example Patterns:
Pattern | Result |
|---|---|
5 4 * * * | Execute at 4:05 AM every day |
1 * 1 1 * | Execute at the 1st minute of the first day of January, annually |
0 9 * * 5 | Execute every Friday at 9AM |
Setup
The CRON Import node supports a few basic options:
Title: All nodes require a Title. This descriptor will display in various views of process history.
Frequency: Frequency indicates how often the workflow engine will evaluate the conditions of this import node. The default frequency for all nodes is 15 minutes. This may be adjusted down to 1 minute, or up to any extended interval you like. In this context, Frequency indicates the interval at which the CRON expression is evaluated. Frequency and the expression can play against each other in cases where your expression identifies an interval that is faster than the specified Frequency.
Source Path: The file pickup location for this import node.
Create process without files: Use this option if you wish to create a new process with no document attached. This feature allows the node to be used much like a job scheduler. This is helpful when performing tasks like synchronizing lists external data sources, or kicking off form processes at specific intervals.
CRON Expression: The expression to evaluate. The CRON expression is evaluated to identify it’s next expected run time at each interval specified in Frequency.
For CRON to work, the node must be able to know when it last passed the expression test. For each workflow, the last successful execution time is written to a file, organized in folders by the workflow ID. This file is store in a subfolder of %LocalAppData% for the service account running the GlobalCapture engine service.
If GlobalCapture is running as “Local System”, you will find the timestamp files here:
C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Square_9_Softworks\CronImport\
Note, you may only use CRON Import to “Create process without files” in workflows where the node is the ONLY import node in that workflow. Multiple import nodes on a single workflow design are not supported when using this feature.