Timer event - Delay until the DATE AND TIME specified

RE: Timer event - Delay until the DATE AND TIME specified

erickp — Wed, 25 Jul 2018 13:58:48 GMT

This is excellent, Rob. It gave me a perfect idea on how I will implement it. I appreciate your help!

RE: Timer event - Delay until the DATE AND TIME specified

Robert Shankin — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 23:10:05 GMT

Hi Erick -

Consider the following, (there's a lot of timer talk in there, hopefully it doesn't make you dizzy):

When instance #1 of the re-cert process runs, kick of an asynchronous re-cert timing verification process immediately.
The start task of this verification process flows directly into a timer that waits 5.5 months after the timer is a task form that's assigned to the re-cert Admins.
The task form in the timing verification process doesn't update a constant, instead, it flows into a new asynchronous instance of the re-cert process that also has a timer following the start task.
1. Configure an exception timer on the admin task, in case it gets ignored, and just start the re-cert process at 6 months.
2. If an admin changes the date on the task form, before the exception timer hits, that's the date that goes into the timer in the re-cert process.

Have a look at this sketch (below) - I'm illustrating two processes on the same palette (in different swim lanes) in an effort to keep it simple.
You'd need to build out 2 process models in true practice.

RE: Timer event - Delay until the DATE AND TIME specified

erickp — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 16:13:26 GMT

Hey Rob, this is my use case: We have the need to build a user re-certification application. The idea is for Appian, every 6 months, sends out emails to the supervisors of all of the Appian applications and the supervisors have to approve or agree that certain users don't need their access anymore. The main process has a timer setup on the start event which delays until the date and time specified by a constant. This constant can be modified through an Appian UI by administrators but by itself the system will increment 6 months to the constant when the process runs. So when we deploy to production, the process will look at the value of the constant and will run given that date. But what if I want to modify the date to be a day later? Can I do that or do I need to republish the process model?

RE: Timer event - Delay until the DATE AND TIME specified

Robert Shankin — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 16:07:59 GMT

Good feedback from all.
No, this isn't a defect.
Appian doesn't poll completed timers for changes. Thus the timer task won't restart based on an update to a referenced constant..

I'm curious about your use case, Erick.
Design recommendations these days lean more towards short-lived processes that leverage a relational database for relevant long-lived data.

Have a look at this playbook play to see what I mean.

RE: Timer event - Delay until the DATE AND TIME specified

prakashb9987 — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 08:53:43 GMT

When the process model is published (and first run?) the values used in the constant/expression are set for the start timer and can't be changed.If you set the condition to check that the current date is in a string of dates that you store in a constant you could change the constant whenever you want and the next day the process will check for the current list of dates.it won't take the new value unless you publish again the PM.

RE: Timer event - Delay until the DATE AND TIME specified

Brazil Vibanco — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 07:05:24 GMT

Hi erickp,

AFAIK, as everybody mentioned, you have to set two different triggers.
On your case, the process model is getting its start time value from the constant, getting the constant value at the moment the process model is published. So, if you update the constant later, the process model will still be having the same value as when it was published, it won't take the new value unless you publish again the PM.

RE: Timer event - Delay until the DATE AND TIME specified

sharayut — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 06:51:32 GMT

You need to configure 2 timers in your Start event with the date and time you require. The process will get executed depending upon the condition specified.

RE: Timer event - Delay until the DATE AND TIME specified

hedn89 — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 02:52:03 GMT

Hi Erickp,

You need to configure two timer events in the start event. One for 7:00 AM and second one for 1:00 PM. Appian will kick off the process at both the times specified. Please let me know if this works.

Thanks

RE: Timer event - Delay until the DATE AND TIME specified

Bala — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 01:08:01 GMT

How did you add the second time that you wanted kick process at. Did you create another Timer trigger in Start event?