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Want Cura to perform tasks automatically without you having to ask each time? You can schedule your automations (both individual Tasks and multi-step Workflows) to run at specific times or regular intervals. This is incredibly useful for monitoring information, ensuring tasks run consistently, and gathering data automatically. Why Schedule Automations?
  • Consistency: Ensure routine tasks (like pulling reports or checking statuses) happen reliably on schedule.
  • Monitoring: Keep an eye on websites for changes (e.g., price updates, stock levels, specific content) by having Cura check regularly.
  • Timeliness: Gather data or perform actions at specific times (e.g., checking sales figures first thing in the morning).
  • Efficiency: Run tasks during off-hours or automatically trigger processes based on time rather than manual initiation.
What Can Be Scheduled? You can typically schedule any reusable Task or Workflow you have defined, including those designed for:
  • Simple data checks: Checking a specific value on a page.
  • Report data gathering: Collecting figures needed for regular reports.
  • Multi-site checks: Comparing prices or checking statuses across different websites.
  • System updates: Running routine data entry tasks.
How Scheduling Enables Monitoring & Alerting: By scheduling tasks to run repeatedly, you inherently create a monitoring system. For example:
  • Price Monitoring: Schedule a task to check a product’s price on a competitor’s website every day. If the task includes a step to notify you (e.g., send an email) if the price changes or drops below a certain threshold, you’ve created a price alert system.
  • Inventory Checks: Schedule a workflow to check stock levels for key items across supplier websites every morning. The result of the workflow run will tell you the current levels.
  • Website Content Monitoring: Schedule a task to visit a specific webpage and check if certain keywords appear or disappear, notifying you of changes.
The key is combining the scheduling feature with a Task or Workflow designed to check the desired information and potentially include a notification step based on the findings.

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Examples of Scheduled Automations (Conceptual)

  1. Daily Price Check:
    • Goal: Monitor the price of a specific item daily.
    • Setup: Create a Simple Task to visit a product page and extract the price. Add a step to email you if the price is below $50.
    • Schedule: Run this task every day at 8:00 AM.
  2. Weekly Report Data Collection:
    • Goal: Gather sales data for a weekly report automatically.
    • Setup: Create a Report Generation workflow that logs into the sales dashboard and extracts key metrics.
    • Schedule: Run this workflow every Monday at 6:00 AM so the data is ready for the weekly meeting.
  3. Hourly Website Status Check:
    • Goal: Ensure a critical webpage is loading correctly.
    • Setup: Create a Simple Task that just visits [Your Website URL] and checks for a specific element or text that should always be present. Include a step to notify IT via email if the check fails.
    • Schedule: Run this task every hour.