Schedule a pipeline

A schedule runs a pipeline at defined times. A pipeline can hold more than one schedule, and each schedule is managed on its own. Overrides for period, organisation units, and training live on Input context.

Before you start

The pipeline and its steps are saved. See Create a pipeline.

View schedules

Open the pipeline and select Schedules.

The number in brackets is how many schedules this pipeline has. Steps uses the same convention, so Steps (14) and Schedules (1) means fourteen steps and one schedule.

A pipeline with no schedules shows the tab without a number.

Column	What it shows
Name	The name you gave the schedule. It is the only text you write, so make the timing obvious.
Status	Active will fire. Disabled keeps every setting and fires nothing.
Expression	The cron expression. Five values separated by spaces.
Last Run	When the schedule last fired. Blank until the first run.
Next Run	When it is due next. Calculated from the expression. A disabled schedule has none.
Actions	Edit, disable, or delete.

Read Last Run and Next Run together. A schedule meant to run monthly, with those two dates a day apart, has the wrong expression.

Add a schedule

On Schedules, click Add Schedule.

The dialog is titled Add schedule and shows the pipeline name. Work through the sections in order.

Section	What it settles
1 Identification	What this schedule is called
2 Trigger	When it fires
3 Input context	What each step uses on this schedule

Identification and Trigger are required. Leave Input context alone and every step uses the settings saved on the step. See Input context.

Identification

Name is required. It is the label in the Schedules table, and it is how you tell one schedule from another. Weekly Monday schedule and Daily 3:45pm still make sense when a second schedule exists.

Description is optional. Use it when the reason for the time would not be obvious, for example a run timed to follow a national reporting deadline. The description is not shown in the table. It is there for the next person who opens the schedule.

Trigger

A cron expression is five values separated by spaces: minute, hour, day of the month, month, and day of the week. Together they say at which minutes of which hours, on which days, this run happens.

Five read-only boxes under the field show how CAPS parsed the expression. Edit the Cron expression field, or click a preset. The boxes update either way.

Position	Box	Accepts	Meaning
1st	MINUTE	0 to 59	The minute within the hour
2nd	HOUR	0 to 23	The hour, on a 24-hour clock
3rd	DAY	1 to 31	The day of the month
4th	MONTH	1 to 12	The month of the year
5th	WEEKDAY	0 to 6	The day of the week, Sunday to Saturday

An asterisk (*) means every value of that unit.

0 13 * * 1 is minute 0, hour 13, every day of the month, every month, weekday 1. Weekday 1 is Monday, so the schedule fires at 13:00 every Monday. 0 13 * * * fires at 13:00 every day. 0 13 1 * 1 fires only when the first of the month is a Monday. Restricting DAY and WEEKDAY together is rarely what you want.

Presets

Click a preset to rewrite the expression. The selected preset is outlined.

• Every hour writes 0 * * * *. The pipeline runs at the top of every hour.

• Daily 02:00 writes 0 2 * * *. The next runs fall on consecutive dates at 02:00.

• Weekly Mon sets weekday 1. The next runs are seven days apart.

• Monthly 1st sets the day of the month to 1 and clears the weekday. The next runs fall on the first of consecutive months.

Weekly Mon and Monthly 1st name a day and keep the hour already in the expression. After either preset, check the HOUR box and edit the expression if that hour is wrong.

A preset is a starting point. Weekly Mon followed by changing the hour to 13 gives 0 13 * * 1, which is 13:00 every Monday.

Confirm the time

Two panels under the expression translate it back.

• Reads As states the next run in plain language, with the time zone in brackets beneath.
• Next 3 Runs lists the next three firing times and how far away each one is. The spacing is the check: three dates seven days apart is weekly, and three dates one day apart is daily.

Read both before you save. An expression can be valid and still fire at the wrong time.

Save

Add schedule creates the schedule. The dialog title stays Add schedule.

An existing schedule opens the same dialog titled Edit schedule. The button is Save changes.

Cancel closes the dialog and discards what you typed.

A saved schedule appears in the table at once. Next Run is already filled. Last Run stays empty until the schedule fires.

Edit, disable, or delete

The icons on a row are edit, disable, and delete. Delete is the red control.

Edit. Click the pencil.

The same dialog opens, titled Edit schedule, with the current values. Click Save changes. The edit applies from the next firing. A run already in progress keeps the settings it started with.

Disable. Click the circle with a line through it.

The schedule stops firing and keeps every setting. Status becomes disabled and Next Run clears. The same control enables it again. Use this during maintenance, a data freeze, or any period when an automatic run would write incomplete results. Disable when you expect to want the schedule again. The cron expression and the input context stay intact.

Delete. Click the red bin.

The schedule is removed. The pipeline and its steps stay, and you can still trigger the pipeline by hand or with another schedule. Deleting also discards the input context overrides.

When you set the time

• Confirm the expression, the time zone, and the next runs before you save.
• Schedule the run for when the health data and the climate data should already be available.
• Use latest-period settings when each run should move forward. See Input context.
• For a recurring prediction, decide whether the training end period should advance as new data arrives.
• Check that each run targets the organisation units you intend.
• Leave the schedule active when you want it to fire.
• Watch Last Run and Next Run for a pattern you did not intend.

Check

Schedules shows the new row as active, Reads As matches the time you wanted, and Next 3 Runs are spaced the way you intended.

Next

Set input context when this schedule should use different periods or organisation units than the steps.