Unit introduction
Welcome to unit four!
Now it’s time to explore another Make feature: scenario scheduling. It allows you to manage the time periods of the scenario execution.
By the end of this unit you should have an understanding of every scheduling option and its impact on both your scenario and your operations and credits usage.
We’ll explore a few different use cases to illustrate each scenario.
A quick recap of scheduling
Scheduling is what determines the frequency of when and how often your scenario is activated in Make.
There are many options, so it is important to ask yourself these questions before choosing the right option:
- “How often do I need my scenario to run?”
- “How soon do I need the data from my scenario?”
- “Am I on the right plan to facilitate these needs?”
Over the next few pages you will revisit scheduling in greater depth, and look at a few use cases for each option.
How to schedule your scenario
There are two ways to access the scheduling controls for your scenario.
To open the schedule settings, do one of the following:
- Activate scheduling by clicking the icon in the lower left corner of the Make user interface.
- Click the trigger icon in the first module of your scenario.
Scheduling options
To access your scheduling options, select the drop down next to Run scenario: You will be presented with all options available to you.
Immediately
Note: The immediately option is only available when you select an instant trigger.
Triggering a scenario immediately is massively powerful for when you need to access your data as soon as it arrives.
At regular intervals
The lowest regular interval you can use is one minute. Note that on the free Make subscription, the minimum interval between scenario executions is 15 minutes.
Advanced scheduling options can be used. For example you may want your scenario to execute every 10 minutes, but only within working hours (for example 9AM - 5PM). Advanced scheduling will be explored on the next page.
Advanced scheduling You can define specific time intervals during which your scenario is to run. You can specify time-of-day intervals, weekdays or months.
Once
Selecting the once option allows your scenario to be executed just once according to the chosen date/time.
Every day
As the name suggests, this will execute the scenario every day.
Make uses your organization’s time zone to set the scenario execution time. This can be changed within Profile → Time zone options → Scenarios → My organization.
This is ideal for scenarios that only need to be checked once per day, as well as saving on the operations performed and credits consumed.
By toggling the Show advanced settings button, you are able to specify a start and end duration for this scenario to run in. e.g. ‘Run this scenario every day, for a 2 week period’.
Days of the week
Days of the week is for scheduling the scenario to execute once on a specified day.
This is for scenarios that may need to only be used within a Monday - Friday work schedule.
Advanced settings allow indicating a range of days during which the scenario is executed.
Days of the month
Scheduling your scenario to run on days of the month is useful for collecting data / sending communications at set intervals.
For example: Send outgoing emails containing a task for your staff on the 1st of the month. Send a follow up reminder on the 10th. Send a nudge for users who have not acknowledged task on the 15th.
Specified dates
Specified dates is very similar to days of the month, however it gives you even more control on the specific days / months you want the scenario to execute.
This would be perfect for a marketing campaign where you know the exact dates ahead of time in which you would want to send out communications.
On demand
The On Demand function is used at your own leisure - selecting this option will not execute the scenario until you open it, and select Run once.
Ideal for a use case when you need to execute the scenario just once on demand.
Advanced scheduling
In this exercise you will explore the versatility of the regular intervals scheduling option.
On the previous screen you were provided with a brief overview of all scheduling options. It was noted that with regular intervals you are able to add another layer of control.
Open your Make Foundation Use Case scenario within Make, and select the schedule setting icon. This scenario involves a Weather module connected to a Google Sheets → Add a Row module.
Under Run scenario make sure that At regular intervals is selected. Type in 60 under Minutes. This is the time interval in which the scenario should be repeated (in minutes).
Click the +Add item button. You will notice that the setting screen has expanded. This will allow you to define specific time intervals for when you want your scenario to be executed. You can specify time-of-day intervals, weekdays or months. This can be a period of hours, days, weeks, and months.
Click into Time from - you will be prompted with a window that allows you to select the time. Here you can also manually type the time in an hh:mm format, e.g. 09:30. For the purpose of this exercise, map the time from at 09:00, and the time to at 17:00.
Under days, select Saturday and Sunday only. For months, select February. Click Save.
Well done - you have configured your scenario to execute on every Saturday and Sunday, in February, between 09:00 - 17:00.
What makes this function so powerful is that you can set your scenario to be active during multiple periods of time within hours, days, weeks, and months!