CRON Import Node

The CRON Import Node is available in GlobalCapture only.

This node will need to be downloaded from the Square 9 SDN before proceeding.

This node facilitates import processing for capture at specific time intervals, as specified through a CRON expression.

CRON is job scheduler in Unix based operating systems, but it’s expression format is widely accepted as the standard for shorthand notation of a schedule, making it a perfect fit for tasks that require more discrete scheduling than a standard import node provides.

This is useful if you have documents imported to be imported at a specific time, or to help manage workflows by acting as a Task Scheduler.

Node Properties

Title

Add a title for this node. Your title should be brief but descriptive about what is being picked up. Titles are useful when reading the history in the history of a workflow for easier understanding of the overall process.

Description

Provide a synopsis of what this node is doing, or make note of any important details. This is useful for providing additional information such as workflow details, pick up location, pickup schedule, use case information, etc. A good description is helpful when returning to modify the workflow in the future.

Frequency

Includes settings for Days, Hours and Minutes. By default, this is set to 15 minutes. Setting the frequency is important for how often you’d like for this to execute. For example, if there is a nightly upload we’d want this to run once every 24 hours and can set the frequency to do so.

The workflow will run with the scheduled frequency each time the workflow is saved.

Ex. If you set the frequency to 1 hour and save the workflow at 2:42 pm, it will run immediately on save and then again at 3:42 pm and so one. If you were to modify the workflow at 3:15 pm and save, it would run immediately and then again at 4:15.

Data Validation

The Data Validation checkbox is enabled by default to enforce Data Types or Length settings for Fields. When enabled, if data does not meet the type or length settings for the field, the process will error on this node.

Source path

The Source Path is the location of the folder to be monitored for documents. This accepts UNC file paths.

Create Process without files

Use this option if you wish to create a new process with no document attached. This feature allows the node to be used much like a job scheduler. This is helpful when performing tasks like synchronizing lists external data sources, or kicking off form processes at specific intervals.

CRON Expression

The expression to evaluate. The CRON expression is evaluated to identify it’s next expected run time at each interval specified in Frequency.

For CRON to work, the node must be able to know when it last passed the expression test. For each workflow, the last successful execution time is written to a file, organized in folders by the workflow ID. This file is store in a subfolder of %LocalAppData% for the service account running the GlobalCapture engine service.

If GlobalCapture is running as “Local System”, you will find the timestamp files here:

C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Square_9_Softworks\CronImport\

Note, you may only use CRON Import to “Create process without files” in workflows where the node is the ONLY import node in that workflow. Multiple import nodes on a single workflow design are not supported when using this feature.

CRON Expressions

A web search will return numerous quality results to better help you understand CRON expressions. We also recommend this one for building and understanding expressions.

A typical expression will be broken down into 5 positions separated by a space, in the form:

Minute	Hour	Day of Month	Month	Day of Week

Example Patterns:

Pattern	Result
5 4 * * *	Execute at 4:05 AM every day
1 * 1 1 *	Execute at the 1st minute of the first day of January, annually
0 9 * * 5	Execute every Friday at 9AM

Use Case

Importing documents at 9 p.m. on a nightly basis

In this example, the CRON Import node imports documents that are scanned to a file folder. This is running on a business nightly basis by running Monday through Friday, at 9 p.m.

It can be helpful to run processes that might take longer to process due to their file size overnight so they are ready when users arrive the next day.