Using cron-based scheduling

You can set up more complex scheduling by incorporating cron expressions in your job schedules. You can still specify that a job execute at a repeating calendar interval, such as every sixty minutes or once each day, for example. With cron-based scheduling, you can be even more specific about when you want a job to run, according to a business period interval, such as on the last Friday of the month, or every ten minutes from 4 PM to 6 PM daily.

If you choose to use a cron expression in scheduling a job, you select it from the Repeat interval drop down list.

You can include from one to five cron expressions (separated by semi-colons) in the Cron expression field of a job schedule. Each cron expression consists of the following five fields:

To help you set up a cron expression, you can click Assist (once you select Cron expression from the Repeat Interval drop-down list).

A window with several different calendars appears. You can use this window to choose the month(s), date(s), day(s), etc., when you want the job to run.

When you finish making your choices, click Apply. Cron expressions that correspond to the choices you made appear in the Cron expression field.

Each field describes a different part of the scheduling definition. For example, the 15 15 ? * MON-FRIcron expression specifies that a job should be run at 3:15 PM every weekday of every month.

If you also want the job to run once every Saturday and Sunday but at a different time from when it runs each weekday, you can use two cron expressions. For example, the 15 15 ? * MON-FRI; 30 19 ? * SAT,SUNcron expression specifies that a job will run at 3:15 PM each weekday of every month, and the job will also run at 7:30 PM every Saturday and Sunday of every month.

For more details about using cron expressions, click the Cron expression field Help button.