Time-Dependent Triggers

Time-Dependent Trigger calls an action at a determined time. For example, a notification should be sent to a client e-mail address three days before a Due Date of payment, if an invoice was not paid. In this case a Time Dependent Trigger with an E-mail Alert workflow action can be created.

To create a new time-dependent trigger, click on the New button and specify the General and Matching properties.

Name	In the Name field specify a name of the trigger.
Notes	In the Notes field enter a trigger description or any explanation text.
Active	Select the Active checkbox if the trigger should take effect. If the checkbox is cleared, the trigger will be stored in the system but will not call any actions even if all predefined conditions are met.

Filter	In the Filter section specify a condition that will trigger a certain action if it is met.
Date	From the Date list select a necessary date (or time).
Offset	In the Offset section specify a period before or after the selected date when the trigger should call a workflow action.

Please note, if there is a formula-date column in a table, such a column can be selected in the Date dropdown only if the formula is "deterministic". – It means that it cannot use Today() or Now() functions.

When finished, click Save to save the trigger.

Then you should associate Workflow Actions with the trigger.

Please, note that the Navigate action does NOT work with Time-Dependent triggers.

To check quickly the filter conditions specified in the trigger and review records that could be affected, go to the workflow triggers list, click directly on the trigger name and use the View Records button displayed on the trigger form.

The button comprises the dropdown with two options:

Option	Description
Matching filter criteria	Choose this option if you want to review the records matching filter criteria specified in the trigger.
Matching filter criteria and current timeframe	Click on this option in case you need to review the records matching filter criteria and the Current Timeframe .

The Current Timeframe section shows two timestamp values From and To. This is the nearest future range for which the trigger will be executed. So, if a value of a column chosen in the Date field is within the Current Timeframe range, the trigger will be executed for such records.

The calculation of the Current Timeframe range can be described by this formula Between([Date]+Nd, [Current Timeframe F rom], Now()) . If the trigger settings are modified, the From field will show the timestamp of the modification until the moment of next execution of the trigger.

A time-dependent trigger with a sole email alert action that is not reused elsewhere is viewed and edited as a reminder – on a single screen; but these trigger and action are also listed under workflow triggers and actions to allow fine-tuning.

The limit of records, that the system can process at once by each Time-Dependent trigger, depends on the number of users invited into the database. More details are provided in the Record Processing Limits item.

Below the time-dependent trigger form you can see the L og displaying when the trigger was execute d and which records were processed .

To review the list of processed records, click on a corresponding View Records link shown in the log.

Next: Periodic Triggers