Poormans Scheduler

I'm a startup that's not in the position to purchase the Scheduler Add-on yet, so I was curious to know what others have done as an alternative to schedule to schedule scripts. At the inspire conference a couple of years ago, I spoke to a user who was successfully using windows scheduler.

If you have an approach you are willing to share, I would be very interested to hear about it and the steps required to implement it.

Thanks,

Jim

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fharper

you can probably sort my scheduler system out from the powerpoint posted from the Nov 2016 Tampa User's Group. It is a bit more evolved in some ways than Autohotkey and macroreader. We initially used macroreader to script our order of execution and automate the keystroke responses to make the workflows or apps run without user intervention. You had to make everything an app as I recall or it would not run from command line, unless you bought the scheduler option which was not available back then actually. there were other issues with that tool and approach as well.

Long story short we paid the smaller fee for the scheduler option to a designer license when it became available versus the BIG bucks for the Server version that comes with a scheduler. Even so the Alteryx scheduler was insufficient for our needs, basically a repackaged Windows Task Manager. But with the scheduler option I can run any workflow from the command line. so I built a control file for my scheduler criteria, a job to evaluate the logs I write and the schedule criteria I designed and determine what jobs/workflows to run then feed that into another workflow to build batch files to run them.

This is all run from another batch file that is run by the windows task scheduler every 10 minutes. each of the batch files that run other batch files or jobs writes to log files to record the run and error level for evaluation in the next 10 minute cycle. if something failed we can automatically re-submit if we set up the criteria to do so. this is handy as many times we have connection issues with files and DBs that cause failures and will clear up in minutes or some period of time and we can just resubmit until it works if we want, or limit re-submission, by job.

I say job because we run VBA and other programs from the scheduler as well, not just workflows. anything you can run from the command line you can use the schedule system for.

I have a calendar feature used to determine if it is a business day, weekend or holiday so we can use it in our schedule criteria. I have daily weekly monthly and specific day and certain days of week and times of days and specific day or next business day or prior business day logic as well. stuff you see in a good mainframe scheduler but not in Windows or any other scheduler for under a few thousand a year.

A big feature is ability to define predecessors. Where we have 2 separate jobs that may each extract some data from separate sources and then a third job that merges the data and does final processing and reporting. We call the first 2 predecessors and can set it up so the last job waits for the first two to finish. very useful in breaking up big workflows into smaller ones that can run in parallel and then merges in a final flow.

The presentation from Nov 2016 gives a good view of that and parallel processing and some other handy tips.

If you still have questions or want the code you can contact me.

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patrick_digan

@fharper gave a pretty cool presentation to the Tampa User Group last year. I *think* it may be exactly what you're looking for, but I've tagged him to see if he has any insights.

fharper

Thanks Patrick! I built a scheduler system leveraging the command line execution feature you get when you buy the scheduler option for a Desktop Alteryx license.

I think the slide show, which is more of an overview, is still available through the Tampa User's Group page in the community. It was Nov 2016 so probably listed as 4th quarter meeting.

It is more sophisticated in its capabilities than what the Alteryx Scheduler offers. If you want details you can contact me directly.

anthony

The super cheap version is to use autohotkey script and create a .exe to open a yxmd file and hit run button or control R it.

That you can schedule in windows scheduler.

There are desktop automation solutions that do the same thing but can be $1-2k

fharper

I say job because we run VBA and other programs from the scheduler as well, not just workflows. anything you can run from the command line you can use the schedule system for.

The presentation from Nov 2016 gives a good view of that and parallel processing and some other handy tips.

If you still have questions or want the code you can contact me.

mutuelinvestor

You had me at super cheap. I will definitely check out autohotkey. I suspect this will meet my need just fine until I can go out and purchase the Scheduler Add-on.

Thank you.

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