Schedule Tasks with Cron

Cron by viaSocket acts as a trigger that helps you automate recurring tasks on a set schedule. Unlike other triggers, it doesn’t wait for changes in an app to trigger an action.

Example: You need to send a weekly reminder email to your team every Monday at 9 AM. Instead of doing it manually each week, you set Cron to send the email automatically at that time.

How to Set Up Your Cron

1. In the Workflow editor, click the Trigger step. The right sidebar will open

2. In the box, enter the prompt, such as “daily at 2 PM.”

   

3. You can set the time zone in these many different ways:

   • Frequency Type: How often to trigger (daily, weekly, etc.).

   • Interval: Set the number (e.g., every 2 days).

   • Start Date: Choose when to start.

4. Click Test trigger

5. Click Continue to set up your workflow action.

Advanced Config Option in Cron

In the advanced config option, you can use the following built-in tools along with Cron to perform more complex tasks and achieve advanced functionality: JS Code, HTTP API Requests, AI Agent, and Apps to retrieve information at specific times.

Let’s take an example:

• Schedule Cron: Set the Cron to run at the end of every month.

• Fetch Data: Use the GET API to gather all employee data.

• Choose Flow Type: You have two options here:

- Run the flow based on certain conditions.

- Run the flow step by step (one by one).

• Calculate Performance: Use JS code to calculate each employee’s performance based on different factors (e.g., task completion, deadlines met).

• Draft Message: With the help of the AI Agent, automatically draft a personalized message for each employee based on their performance.

This way, you automate the entire process—collecting data, calculating performance, and generating messages—without manual effort.

Bonus Feature:

The default timezone will be set to the workspace timezone, but users can easily change the timezone for each specific Cron, offering more flexibility.