iDempiere schedulers allows different processes to be executed asynchronously. This feature simplifies work by completing processes automatically with minimal human intervention. Work can be completed sooner than later.
A business scenario for schedulers are completing sales orders. The iDempiere “Sales Orders” window allows a user to enter and modify sales orders. As part of the workflow, sales orders need to be completed before generating customer shipments and customer invoices. Completion can be done manually or via a process. Manual completion becomes harder when you reach hundreds or even thousands of sales orders. It will take a few man hours to complete hundreds of sales orders!
Fortunately, iDempiere has provided an off-the-shelf process called “Order Batch Process” that can complete sales orders in minutes. A user enters the required parameters, runs the process and the system will proceed to perform the action without further user intervention.
Moreover, the “Order Batch Process” can also be scheduled via the Scheduler. This further lessens human interaction and allows the system to complete Sales Orders on its own.
After setting it up, schedulers don’t need further human intervention as processes are run asynchronously. The schedule period can be set to one hour, two hours, daily or weekly. The scheduler can be timed to run after work to lessen CPU costs. It can be assigned parameters to focus the run to a particular result set. Finally, schedulers can be assigned email recipients to receive results after each scheduled run.
We recently implemented a scheduler to run my version of the “Order Batch Process” to complete thousands of sales orders. It runs every night at midnight in a different server to lessen CPU costs during the day. It’s a set up that allows the company team to get the latest sales report the moment they get to work the succeeding day. This is a great benefit to the company which requires up-to-date sales reports.
Schedulers are important functions for businesses to improve computer performance, work efficiency and reduce business costs. For businesses, this is another benefit to implement the open-source iDempiere ERP in their companies. No license fees. Unlimited users. Highly customizable.