Configuring a Date/Time Event

You can define a date/time event for a task, as described in Configuring a Task Event Type.

1. Select a Date/Time event type as described in Configuring a Task Event Type. The controls for defining the event type appear in the Date/Time Event area.

2. Specify a start date for the date/time event by clicking the browse button next to the Choose Start Date label. The start date is the base date that determines how the date/time event is evaluated. For example, if you want an event to trigger on a specific date, click that date as the start date. If you want the event to trigger after a specified number of days, the interval is determined beginning with the start date.

Note:
If you are using a defined date from the Task Info (such as creation date), click the browse button and select it. If you want to use a custom date, you must first create a custom business data field defining the date. For more information on defining custom business data fields, see Adding A Business Data Field with the Editor and Adding Task Business Data Fields to a Page or View.

3. If you want a business calendar to calculate the date/time interval, select the Use Business Calendar check box. If you select this check box, click the browse button next to the check box to specify a corporate (business) calendar defined in My webMethods Server. For more information about business calendars, see Working with User and Business Calendars.

You can also click a business data field to use as a business calendar; in this case, when you pick a business data field for calendar, the field value is expected to contain the Lookup Name of the desired calendar, as defined on the Business Calendars administration page in My webMethods.

If you do not use a business calendar, any date/time interval will be calculated using all days of the week (including weekends and holidays).

4. If you leave the Days After Start Date value set to zero, the event will trigger when the start date is matched.

Note:
Date/time events are not precise; the approximate accuracy is about 1 minute. For example, if you configure a date/time event to trigger exactly at the task creation date, the actual event may be triggered up to 1 minute later than the task is queued

If you want the event to trigger after a certain number of days, do one of the following:

Click the browse button next to the box to select a binding value from the task business data or task information.

Click the browse button next to the box to select a service that has been added to the task; the output value of the service is used to define the Days After Start Date value. For more information about adding a service to a task, see Adding a Service to a Task.

Note:
When you define a Task Date/Time event and base the StartDate on the output of a service, it will call the service every time the scheduler runs and for each task instance being tested (typically every Active task for this task type).

5. If necessary, fine tune the trigger time by specifying a positive or negative offset from the Hours After Start Date and Minutes After Start Date boxes. For example, to trigger the event at 10 P.M. (22:00), you could count to the next day and then set a negative offset of -2 hours, or you could count to the previous day and set an offset of +22 hours.

You can also click the browse button next to the box to select a binding value or service, as described in step 4.

6. Continue defining the event actions as described in Configuring a Task Event Action.