Run on a schedule
Routine work belongs on a schedule: a patrol every weekday at nine, an inspection on the first of each month, a one-off flight next Tuesday. You add the schedule to an Application, and the Scheduler shows every planned run on a calendar.
Before you begin
- An Application to schedule, for example the one from the Quickstart.
Add a schedule
Open the Application's triggers
Open the Application in Build›Applications, switch to the Triggers tab, and under On a schedule select Add trigger.
Say what runs and when
Field What to enter Name What the schedule is for, for example Morning patrol. Asset Chosen by Dispatch Rules (at run time) lets the platform pick a suitable device at each run. Choose a device to always use that one. Time zone The time zone the times below are in, for example Europe/Berlin. Daylight saving time is taken into account. Parameters The Application's inputs. Every run uses these same values. Schedule One-time, Hourly, Daily, Weekly or Monthly, with the time and, for a repeating schedule, the first and last date. Under the schedule, the form says in plain words when it runs and when the next run is.
Choose how it starts
Switch When it's on When it's off Active The schedule runs. It is saved paused and runs nothing until you switch it on. Auto-start execution Each run starts on its own. Each run is created and waits in Build›Executions until an operator opens it and selects Start. Confirm
Select Add trigger. The console sums up what you're about to schedule; check it and select Confirm.
The schedule is listed on the Triggers tab, with its last run once it has fired. Use the pause button to stop it for a while, Edit to change it, or the bin to delete it.
What you have now
- An Application that runs on its own at the times you chose, with the same inputs every time.
See every planned run
Open Operate›Scheduler. The overview at the top shows the next run, what runs in the next 24 hours, what is running now and the last runs with their outcome.
Below it, the calendar shows every run by day, week or month. Times on the Scheduler are in your own time zone: a 09:00 Berlin patrol shows at 10:00 for someone in Istanbul.
- Drag a run to another time to move the schedule. The console asks first. For a repeating schedule, every future run moves, not just the one you dragged.
Look at a run before it happens
Select a planned run on the calendar. Its timeline shows the steps it will go through and how long it is expected to take, worked out from the Application's past runs, when it should finish, how many approval steps it waits for and which device it uses.
From here, Pause stops the schedule, Delete removes it and Application opens the Application. Once the run has started it is marked LIVE, and Execution opens it step by step.
Check that it fired
Last firings in the overview lists every recent firing with its outcome: Started, with a link to the run, Skipped or Failed.
When runs compete for a drone
A scheduled run has priority 50. An alarm from an event trigger has priority 75 by default, so a detection outranks routine work. The platform always prefers a free device; it only takes over a busy one for a run whose priority is higher than the one already running.
When a schedule names one device and that device is busy with a run of higher or equal priority, the scheduled run does not start. The schedule's row on the Triggers tab marks that firing Skipped; select Why to see which run held the device.
Leave Asset on Chosen by Dispatch Rules if any suitable device may do the job.
Troubleshooting
- Add trigger stays disabled. The form says why under the schedule: no name, a missing parameter, no day of the week picked, or no runs left between the dates you chose.
- A schedule shows Needs attention. The platform switched it off because it can no longer run what it names: the Application was deleted, or a new version requires an input the schedule doesn't pass. Edit the schedule, fix it, and switch it on again.
- A run was created but nothing happened. Auto-start execution is off. Open the run in Build›Executions and select Start.
- A run happened an hour off. Check the schedule's Time zone.
- A firing shows Skipped. Select Why on the schedule's row. Most often its device was busy with a more important run. Let Dispatch Rules choose the device, or move the schedule to a quieter time.
- A firing is Skipped with "missed: the platform was not running". A firing that falls while the platform is down is not run late. Only the latest missed firing is recorded.