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Administering Oracle CRM On Demand > Business Process Management > Workflow Configuration > About Scheduled Events

About Scheduled Events

A scheduled event is a workflow rule that is not triggered by a user action. Instead, the scheduled event is automatically executed when a specified date and time is reached. You can optionally configure a scheduled event to be executed multiple times, at an interval that you specify on the scheduled event. The workflow actions on a scheduled event are performed on a list of records, whereas the actions on other types of workflow rules are performed on a single record.

NOTE: The trigger event for a scheduled event is Scheduled Event.

You can create scheduled events for all of the top-level record types that support list management features, and for the Price List, Product, Product Category, and User record types.

When you create a scheduled event, you select a filtered list that returns the records for which you want the workflow actions to be performed. Each time that the scheduled event is executed, the actions are performed for the records that are returned by the filtered list on that date. The records are processed in sequence, that is, all of the workflow actions on the scheduled event are performed in the order specified on the scheduled event for the first record in the list, then all of the actions are performed for the second record in the list, and so on.

As an example, you might want Oracle CRM On Demand to send an email reminder to the owners of open activities for which the due date has passed, and you want this action to be repeated at intervals of one week. To set this up, you create a scheduled event on which you select a previously defined list that returns all open activities for which the due date has already passed. You configure the scheduled event to repeat at intervals of one week, and then create a Send Email action on the scheduled event. The first instance of the scheduled event is executed on the start date that you specified, and an email reminder is sent to the owner of each open activity for which the due date has passed. The scheduled event is then automatically executed again at intervals of one week until the end date that you specified is reached (or the event has been executed the number of times that you specified).

Occurrences of scheduled events are scheduled and executed as follows:

• After you make a scheduled event active, a pending instance is generated for the first scheduled occurrence of the event, and the status of the scheduled event is set to Scheduled. The pending instance is shown in the Workflow Wait Monitor. For information about the fields that are displayed for a pending instance, see Workflow Pending Instance Fields.

  NOTE: The Resume Date on a pending instance of a scheduled event is the earliest possible time that the instance will be executed. Depending on the load on the Oracle CRM On Demand database and on the Oracle CRM On Demand server at that time, the instance might not be executed immediately.

• After an instance of the scheduled event is executed, the following happens:
  • If the Enable Notification check box is selected on the scheduled event, then Oracle CRM On Demand sends an email to the user who made the scheduled event active, to confirm that the instance has been executed.
  • Another instance is generated for the next scheduled occurrence of the event.
• When all instances of the scheduled event have completed, the scheduled event is deactivated (that is, the Active check box on the scheduled event is automatically deselected) and the status of the scheduled event is set to Completed.

Scheduled Event Status

The Status field on a scheduled event is updated automatically and is read-only. The following values can appear in the Status field:

• Not Scheduled. The scheduled event has never been made active.
• Scheduled. The scheduled event is active and a pending instance of the event exists.
• Completed. All of the scheduled occurrences of the scheduled event have completed.
• Terminated. The most recently generated instance of the scheduled event was deleted from the Workflow Wait Monitor, or the scheduled event was deactivated.

  For more information about what happens when you delete an instance of a scheduled event from the Workflow Wait Monitor, see Deleting Pending Instances from the Workflow Wait Monitor.

About Deleting Scheduled Events

If you delete a scheduled event before all of the scheduled occurrences of the event have been executed, then the following happens:

• If a pending instance of the scheduled event exists, then the instance is deleted from the Workflow Wait Monitor.
• If an instance of the scheduled event is currently being executed, then the instance fails. The failure is not reported in the Workflow Error Monitor.
• No further instances of the scheduled event are generated.

About Deactivating Scheduled Events

If you deactivate a scheduled event before all of the scheduled occurrences of the event have been executed, then the following happens:

• The status of the scheduled event is set to Terminated.
• If a pending instance of the scheduled event exists, then the instance is deleted from the Workflow Wait Monitor.
• If an instance of the scheduled event is currently being executed, then some of the actions might fail.

  During the time that an instance of a scheduled event is being executed, Oracle CRM On Demand checks at five-minute intervals to determine if the scheduled event is still active. If the scheduled event has been deactivated, then the instance terminates. Any action that has not already been performed fails, and the error instances for the failed actions are reported in the error monitor.

• No further instances of the scheduled event are generated.

If you select the Active check box on a scheduled event record that was previously deactivated, then the scheduled event record is treated as a new scheduled event. Depending on the schedule, one of the following happens:

• If future occurrences are scheduled. The status of the scheduled event is set to Scheduled and a pending instance is generated for the next scheduled occurrence. The count of occurrences of the scheduled event is reset to 1 when the instance is generated.
• If no future occurrences are scheduled. The Active check box on the scheduled event is automatically deselected again and the status of the scheduled event is set to Completed.

For information about creating scheduled events, see Creating Scheduled Events.