Method:Classic General Q&A

Re: Automatic Actions

LaCrews — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 20:40:03 GMT

Paul

Thanks for the reponse and I agree that properly is better than a quick fix.

Re: Automatic Actions

Method_Paul — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 19:37:23 GMT

That would be a possible quick way of doing it. But here's my thoughts:

1. We can't guarantee the sync engine will be open - so users depending on the daily task will find it undependable.

2. There's an authentication problem - since we need to create a security token in order to open a screen. Right now there is no way to do this without actually signing into Method. If there is no authenticated security token the page doesn't run.

Ultimately here's how I think it would work best:

1. In the designer screen, under Advanced, it has a "Open this screen and run the screen load action daily/weekly/monthly starting on dateX, using the login of UserY" feature.

2. When that gets saved, it also gets entered into a database on our server as a scheduled task.

3. Every hour, an external web server looks for scheduled tasks on the server, and then connects to your database, makes sure your screen is still there, requests a security token, and then opens your screen silently on the external web server.

4. It sends you an email notification that the scheduled task was complete.

5. It schedules the next occurrence of the scheduled task.

6. It moves onto the next scheduled task for the next company account.

7. After all scheduled tasks are complete it shuts down and waits to be activated again.

It's a big job for us to do properly, because ultimately we would want to run the webpage through code, rather than actually loading it in a real browser...........and I'd much rather wait for us to do this properly than to give you a quick fix.

Paul

Re: Automatic Actions

LaCrews — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:35:05 GMT

Paul

There's that API word again but I've got a thought that might make this an easy feature to add. Suppose there was an action set that was tied to the sync engine. Something like that must happen to generate the QB reports.

Re: Automatic Actions

Method_Paul — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:42:32 GMT

Mark - no not yet. I know exactly what you are asking for and why you are asking for it. We just don't have a "Scheduled Tasks" feature in there.

We use Method ourselves to run our company (suprise suprise)......and what we do is have a windows service as a scheduled task in windows that uses the MethodAPI to run daily tasks - such as all the billing for Method users. This for us is a temporary solution as we want to run it directly in Method the way you are referring to - it just isn't in our immediate roadmap, and I have no updates on when we'll have a feature like that in there.

Paul

Automatic Actions

LaCrews — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:11:19 GMT

Is there an event that would trigger an action set without a user being logged in? For example at 6:00 am each day an action set would process and send email regarding a users activities for the day.