The Schedule process

Use the Schedule process to initiate a process, a series of processes, or an entire flowchart. The Schedule process works only if the flowchart is running.

A Schedule process is active for a defined period of time. During that time, specified events might occur that cause subsequent connected processes to begin running. The most common use of the Schedule process is to control timing of the entire flowchart.

Note: A flowchart can include multiple Schedule process boxes as long as they are in independent branches. However, errors can occur if a process has more than one Schedule ancestor in different ancestral branches leading to the same process.

You can configure a Schedule process to define the total scheduling period by setting up a time limit in days, hours, and minutes starting from when the process begins running.

  • You can schedule a process to run in a variety of ways, including repetitively, by trigger, and by calendar.
  • You can combine multiple scheduling options. For example, you can schedule a process to run every Monday at 9:00 a.m., and whenever it is triggered by a specific event, such as a visit to the website.
  • You can schedule a batch process, for example, to run late at night when it will not interfere with daytime jobs.

There are no limits on the number of options that you can use simultaneously in scheduling a flowchart, as long as the selections do not conflict. (For example, you cannot schedule a flowchart to run both "Once Only" and "Every Monday.")

In general, a process runs only when all of its inputs have run successfully (that is, when all processes connected to the current process have run, even if the dependency is only temporal). However, when multiple schedule inputs exist within a branch, the process will run whenever any one of its inputs completes (an "OR" rather than an "AND" of its inputs).

A contact process with tracking enabled contains an inherent schedule. Using a Schedule process in the middle of a flowchart is an advanced feature. Make sure that you are getting the desired behavior and correct results.

Note: If the Schedule process in your flowchart tells the flowchart to run before a previous run is complete, Unica Campaign holds the request until the previous run is finished. Only one run can be held in this manner. In certain cases, this might mean that the flowchart does not run as many times as you expect.

For example, if your flowchart takes two hours to run, and you have a Schedule process that tries to trigger three runs that are only 10 minutes apart, Unica Campaign will start the first run. When the Schedule process attempts to start the second run, Unica Campaign will queue it. When the Schedule process attempts to start the third run, Unica Campaign will ignore it. When the first run is finished, Unica Campaign will start the second run. The third run will never start.