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Feature Request FR-1903
Product Area Application Builder
Status CLOSED

13 Voters

Allow timezone specification in an Automation's Schedule

trent_s Public · Sep 2 2021

Idea Summary
Some external data integrations are regionally time specific. In the UI for creating a schedule, I can for example specify a custom schedule with the following syntax:

Type: Scheduled
Schedule Expression: FREQ=DAILY;INTERVAL=1;BYHOUR=16;BYMINUTE=0 (Daily at 4PM)

When I check the schedule, this shows the following run time:

POLLING_NEXT_RUN_TIMESTAMP: 03-SEP-21 04.00.00.671083 PM +00:00

This time aligns with what I set in the schedule expression, but ideally I'd want to be able to create a schedule that would run according to a specific time zone/region.

Use Case
So that I can more easily set my automation to run at a specific time, according to the region I'm in.

Preferred Solution (Optional)
I was thinking an additional input element where the user could specify a time zone region. It could default to either the database timezone, or be based on what's in the browsers/OS locale. I think region name would be better than timezone offset due to changing offsets based on daylight savings throughout the year.

We reviewed this idea carefully, and while it was interesting, we concluded that it is unlikely to make its way into APEX in the foreseeable future.

Comments

Comments

  • bozo030 OP 10 months ago

    I strongly believe this idea deserves reconsideration. We recently encountered an issue with our APEX automation, set to dispatch a monthly report on the last day of the month at 17:00. On September 30th, the automation correctly scheduled the next run for October 31st at 17:00 +02:00. However, due to the switch to daylight saving time, October 31st transitioned to +01:00.

    As a result, the automation executed at 17:00 +02:00, which was effectively 16:00 in real time. It then recalculated the next run time to be 17:00 +01:00, causing it to trigger again an hour later. This led to our client receiving two identical reports, which are essential for their billing processes.

    This scenario underlines the importance of being able to specify a timezone in the schedule expression, as it directly affects business-critical automations tied to specific regional time settings.