All of the data integration processes that are created through the use of the integration templates can be executed on a standard schedule through a CRON (Common Run On) job.
What is CRON?
The cron command-line utility, also known as CRON job, is a job scheduler process for all Unix-like operating systems. Through the Pricefx Integration Templates, users can set up and maintain a scheduling process using cron to schedule our integration inbound and outbound jobs to run periodically at fixed times, dates, or intervals.
CRON and Integration Template Scheduling
When we are configuring the use of our Integration Templates, within the Integration Properties supporting the route we are building, there will be an option to configure the CRON schedule:
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NOTE: each line in the configuration can contain up to six different fields, but we can use combinations of these to define when and how often it will run. |
CRON Parameters
These five fields (time and date) also accept the following operators:
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NOTE: Instead of a range of values, you can also use the asterisk operator. To specify a job to be run every 20 minutes, you can use “*/20”. |
Run CRON Job Every 5 Minutes
There are two ways to run a cron job every five minutes. First option is to use the comma operator a create a list of minutes:
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NOTE: the “*/5” means create a list of all minutes and run the job for every fifth value from the list. |
More CRON Examples
Below are some additional examples of cron strings related to scheduling:
Minutes | Hours | Day of Month | Month | Day of week | Year | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | 10 | * | * | ? | * | Run at 10:00 am (UTC) every day |
15 | 12 | * | * | ? | * | Run at 12:15 pm (UTC) every day |
0 | 18 | ? | * | MON-FRI | * | Run at 6:00 pm (UTC) every Monday through Friday |
0 | 8 | 1 | * | ? | * | Run at 8:00 am (UTC) every 1st day of the month |
0/15 | * | * | * | ? | * | Run every 15 minutes |
0/10 | * | ? | * | MON-FRI | * | Run every 10 minutes Monday through Friday |
0/5 | 8-17 | ? | * | MON-FRI | * | Run every 5 minutes Monday through Friday between 8:00 am and 5:55 pm (UTC) |
CRON Restrictions
There are several restrictions when it comes to CRON expressions:
We are not allowed to specify the Day-of-month and Day-of-week fields in the same cron expression. If you specify a value (or a *) in one of the fields, you must use a ? (question mark) in the other.
Any cron expressions that lead to rates faster than 1 minute are not supported.