Summary

The Scheduler allows you to specify that a program should run only if a specified file or files exists (or does not exist). This feature can be used indirectly to run a program whenever a specified file exists.

More Information

The Conditions specified in the Scheduler are conditions--not triggers. That is, you cannot directly configure the Scheduler to automatically start the program whenever a file exists, because the Scheduler only checks the conditions when it has been triggered to run the program (i.e., because the scheduled time has arrived).

If you want your program to run whenever a specific file or set of files appears, you can do so as follows:

• Configure the Scheduler to run the program every minute of every hour of every day (or every minute during those periods of time when you want the file to trigger the program).
• Set a condition on the existence of the file or files.
• Select the option to wait up to __ seconds for the condition to be met, and set a wait time of 55 seconds

Now, at the beginning of each minute the Scheduler will wait up to 55 seconds for the condition to be met, and will start the scheduled program when it does. There are a few important things to remember:

• The scheduled program must delete, rename, or move the trigger file as part of its processing, or the Scheduler will continue to execute the program each minute (because the condition will remain satisfied).
• Generally you will want to check the Skip if Already Running option on the Advanced page to ensure that the Scheduler doesn't start the program a second time before the first instance has a chance to remove the trigger file.
• Once the Scheduler has detected the trigger file and started the program, it won't be able to do so again until the start of the next minute, so it is not possible to trigger a program more than once a minute.