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• The Cycle Instruction allows to repeat all jobs or a number of jobs in a workflow.
• The instruction can be used
  • to spawn the complete workflow,
  • to spawn a a number of jobs in a workflow,
  • in a sequential way by using a number of Cycle Instructions,
  • in a nested way by embedding Cycle Instructions.
• The Cycle Instruction offers some versatile options when to repeat execution and how often this should happen.
• Consider that a Cycle Instruction spawning a complete workflow is an alternative to using JS7 - Schedules for cyclic orders.
  • The difference being that Schedules create cyclic orders whereas the Cycle Instruction creates cyclic workflows.
  • For each cyclic order a separate log entry is created while cyclic workflows report to the same log.
  • Processing of cyclic workflows is by far more efficient than use of cyclic workflows.

Basic

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Elements of the Cycle Instruction

The Cycle Instruction allows to specify any number of cycles that define different rule sets when to repeat job nodes.

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In addition for any cycles included with a Cycle Instruction the a rule set specifies

• the begin of first cycle considering the workflow's time zone
• the maximum duration for which cycles are repeated, for example for 8 hours.

Periodical Execution

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• The property editor displays the summary information of the period.
• The period is configured
  • by use of a frequency, for example every day:
    • if an order's scheduled date (Daily Plan date) is not matched by a frequency then the order will skip the Cycle Instruction,
    • otherwise the order considers the Cycle Instruction and e.g. waits for the begin of the first cycle,
  • by period details specifying the begin and duration of the period, e.g. begin of day for 23 hours,
  • by repeat details specifying for example
    • the repeat period of 1 hour,
    • the minutes for which the cycle is started for each repeat period..

When creating/modifying a periodical cycle then this can look like this:

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• The cycle is of periodical type, i.e. the cycle repeats within the given period at fixed points in time.
• The period duration is 1h. 
• The offsets when to start the cycle within the given period are specified by minutes: at each full hour, at each 15th, 30th and 45th minute of each hour
• The first cycle is specified to start at midnight, i.e. begin of day, in the workflow's time zone, with the last cycle being started 23 hours later.

Continuous Execution

This cycle type allow to specify

• a fixed-length pause between cycle executions - consider that the execution time of jobs spawned by a Cycle Instruction might vary between cycles,
• a limit specifying the max. number of cycles to be executed.

Download Workflow Example: pdwCyclicSimpleWorkflowContinuous.json

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Explanation:

• The property editor displays the summary information of the period.
• The period is configured
  • by use of a frequency, for example every day,
    • if an order's scheduled date (Daily Plan date) is not matched by a frequency then the order will skip the Cycle Instruction,
    • otherwise the order considers the Cycle Instruction and e.g. waits for the begin of the first cycle,
  • by period details specifying the begin and duration of the period, e.g. begin of day for 23 hours,
  • by repeat details specifying for example
    • a 15 minutes break between cycles,
    • a limit of 10 repeated executions of the cycle.

When creating/modifying a continuous cycle then this can look like this:

Image Added

Explanation:

• The cycle is of continuous type, i.e. the cycle repeats after a fixed-length pause between executions.
• The period duration is 1h. 
• The paus between executions of the cycle is specified to be 15 minutes.
• The cycle is repeated for a maximum of 10 times.
• The first cycle is specified to start at midnight, i.e. begin of day, in the workflow's time zone, with the last cycle being started 23 hours later or when hitting the limit specified.

Ticking Execution