Using the Application-Get-Next-Recurrence-Time command

Recurrence is defined by a set of fields on the Business Time Segment form. The fields range from 2300 to 2341 and contain recurrence patterns. Field 2300 contains the Recurrence Definition Name used in the Application-Get-Next-Recurrence-Time command. For more information about how these fields are used, see Scheduling-a-time-segment.

You can define Fields 2300 to 2341 on any form, and the Application-Get-Next-Recurrence-Time command is provided to get the next time. You can optionally create a custom form with field IDs in the range of 2300 to 2341 to contain recurrence patterns, and specify that custom form in the Application-Get-Next-Recurrence-Time application command. For all the recurrence time calculations, ICU library functions are used.

Related topics

Business-Time-2-0-commands

Scheduling-a-time-segment

The Application-Get-Next-Recurrence-Time command performs a recurrence date calculation by starting with the day after the start time and finding recurrence dates based on the specified recurrence definition name. The return value is a semicolon-separated list of dates (in seconds since epoch time).

The recurrence pattern specifies a day or days. The Application-Get-Next-Recurrence-Time takes the day or days specified by the recurrence pattern, and adds the starting time portion of the starting date and time to it to return a list of dates (in seconds since epoch time). For example, if a recurrence is defined as "Tuesday of every week" and the start time is 12/1/08 at 11:00 A.M. (a Monday), the value for 12/2/08 at 11:00 A.M. is returned. However, if the start time is 12/2/08 at 11:00 A.M. (a Tuesday), the value for 12/9/08 at 11:00 A.M. is returned.

The command syntax is as follows:

Application-Get-Next-Recurrence-Time  <formName> <startTime> <recurrenceDefinitionName>

The options for these recurrence time calculations are as follows:

  • <formName>—Form that contains the recurrence fields, such as the Business Time Segment form.
  • <startTime>—The starting date and time from which the next recurring day is to be calculated.
  • <recurrenceDefinitionName>—Identifier indicating the entry in the form (specified by <formName>) that contains the recurrence pattern to use for this calculation. This is the name in field 2300.

Following is an example of the command with $PROCESS$:

$PROCESS$ Application-Get-Next-Recurrence-Time "Business Time Segment" "4/14/04 10:30:00 AM" "weekly"

weekly is an entry in the form that contains the recurrence fields, such as the Business Time Segment form. The weekly entry is defined as Wednesday and Friday, every 3 weeks.

The return value is 1082136600, which corresponds to 4/16/04 10:30:00 AM. Calling Application-Get-Next-Recurrence-Time again with a start time of 04/16/04 10:30 AM returns 1083778200;1083951000, corresponding to 5/5/04 10:30:00 AM and 5/7/04 10:30:00 AM.

 

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