Scheduling your projects is a very efficient way of utilizing your Foxtrot and FoxBot licenses as it allows you to run the automation at a given time and recurringly. Also, this enables you to start the automation without any manual involvement, allowing you to also utilize the licenses outside of business hours. However, be aware that it is also quite advanced to schedule your projects, not because setting up the scheduling is complicated, but because it requires a lot from your projects in order for it to run flawlessly. If your projects are not mature for scheduling, the automation will not work properly as you risk issues such as jamming the queue of scheduled items.
Generally speaking, there are three ways of scheduling your projects.
The recommended and most used method is Automation Orchestrator.
Your project needs to be mature for scheduling!
Before selecting any of the two options, it is very important that your project is actually suitable for scheduling. Please make sure that your project fulfil these requirements:
- In the beginning of the project, you have some actions to set the speed of the project and resize/minimize Foxtrot/FoxBot, like this
- Extremely important, you need to make sure to close/end the project in the event of an error (and at the end of the project if executed via .bat files) to make room for the next scheduled job in line. The appropriate method depends on whether you are using batch or FoxHub:
- Automation Orchestrator & Windows Task Scheduler (Batch): Use the action "Close Me" both in any error task and at the end of the project to close Foxtrot/FoxBot, alternatively, make sure to set up the Automation Orchestrator or batch file to close Foxtrot/FoxBot automatically after the execution.
- FoxHub: Use the action "Go to End" in any error task to end the project. you do not need it at the end of the project as it will automatically be closed by FoxHub.
- Also extremely important, you need to set up sufficient error handling in error tasks to make sure to close/end the project and all the other applications involved in the process in the event of an error (that is not handled otherwise). Use either the "Close Me" or "Go to End" action as explained above. Also, remember to set all actions in any error task to "Ignore Errors" in the top-right corner of the action settings.
- Make sure to write log files of the progress ("Starting...", "Item X of Y handled...", and "Ended...") throughout the project either using the Write Log action, into Excel, or something similar.
- Make sure to send emails in the event that an error occur. We also recommend sending an email with the projects starts and ends so that you know whether the scheduled job ever started and completed.
Schedule projects on servers
If you are planning on scheduling your projects on servers and run the automation while the connection it is either minimized or not established at all, please read these guides carefully.
Set up the scheduling
As mentioned, there are three methods of setting up scheduling. The recommended and most used method is Automation Orchestrator. If you are looking for a simple but limited method, select FoxHub, if you are looking for a fully customizable method possibility of writing your own logics in batch files, select the Windows Task Scheduler option.
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.