hi,
I'm testing a scenario with two BPT processes, in which I have the first activity that will process some data and then I want the second to have the data from the first process available. So I thought I'd add a schedule to the “startDate” parameter, but it doesn't seem to be happening.
Is this normal or I understood wrong?
and when I go to the service center to see the logs, I see this
Activity 2 did not start with the date I added.
Can someone explain to me if this is normal or if I've misunderstood the documentation?
And what's the difference between using this StartDate parameter and the Wait process activity?
PS: I just used the function "AddSeconds" for testing purposes
thank you so much for your reply Lennart, I'll try to see the right approach.
In the mean time about the question that I post, I see that the process it will always have that start date and not the one that has inserted, for me it's a bit confusing, because at first seems to imply that the process start at that datetime but it isn't. The process is created and them has the status "schedule" and stays with that status until reaches the schedule datetime to execute.
The reason I asked was because I wanted to understand how the call worked and from there know if the timeout I have could be the result of not starting at the scheduled time.
Thank you all for your replies
Hi @Cátia Frederico
Check if the activity 2 is configured as Automatic. If it is, it will be executed immediately when the flow reaches it, regardless of the StartDate.
Wait process: Pauses execution for a specific duration.
Start date: When you need to enforce a strict delay or wait for external conditions.
Kind regards,
Tami
Why would you solve it like this, what is the benifit of 2 automated activities after each other? You can execute the logic of activity 2 inactivity 1 and make your process easier to code and faster to execute.
hi Daniel,
This is just some testing that I'm doing to understand some behaviors of the BPT, but in my project I have an API call that has data that I need to save, after that data is save is when it calls the Activity 2 and work with that saved records. That is how it is implemented, and what I'm trying to understand is a timeout that I believed is cause by a deadlock between 2 activities (both activity 2) that are in process.
Hi Cátia,
AFAIK, the StartDate value only does something on manual activities. And even then it only determines when the activity will become visible for the assigned group or user in the activity taskbox.
If you've got an API call that triggers a BPT-process, then it's a possibility that multiple processes run in parallel. If they're trying to access/write the same data, it can indeed cause deadlocks or at least waits in the DB.
hi Lennart,
I think that's exactly what's happening, but I'm not sure how to solve the problem. How can this problem be solved in Outsystems? Add a commit at the beginning of the timer?
Thank you
If your automatic activities are trying to write in the same records simultaneously, then that can cause deadlocks. You can try to use 'Get<TableName>ForUpdate', which locks the table until you commit your changes (or reach the end of the action flow).You can find more info about this here:https://success.outsystems.com/documentation/how_to_guides/data/how_to_handle_concurrent_updates_on_application_data_records/But if this is a problem where the order might be important, I would use a queuing system that queues your changes, while a timer picks these up, either per batch or one-at-a-time. These prevents the simultaneous writing to the same record.