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[Wolter Kaper]

#Technical #BC/NAVPlus

Dear Business Central / AL developer experts,

I am new to TaskScheduler.
I am trying to get the TaskScheduler to work from my AL code. I can schedule a task, it is visible in the “Scheduled Tasks” table. At the scheduled time, a row in the “Session Events” table appears. But the task does not do it’s usual work. What can be the reason for this?

I wrote a test CodeUnit, if I run it by hand it writes a message to a custom log table. If I schedule it, the message does not get written… even though the task appears in the session events table.

Please see the code below.
Also added: a zip of the AL test project (with the MS apps removed to make it uploadable).
==================

codeunit 60001 TaskSchedulerTest

{

    //This is the Task to perform.

    trigger OnRun()

    var

        Log: Record MessageLog;

    begin

        Log.Log(3, ‘The test CodeUnit 60001 has run!’);

    end;

    //This should schedule the Task, a chosen number of minutes after NOW.

    procedure ScheduleMe()

    var

        MinutesAfterNow: Integer;

        TargetCompany: Text;

        NotBefore: DateTime;

        TaskGuid: Guid;

    begin

        //Configure the scheduling

        MinutesAfterNow := 5;

        TargetCompany := ‘Entocare CV’; //change it

        //Schedule this CodeUnit

        NotBefore := CreateDateTime(Today(), Time()) + MinutesAfterNow * 60 * 1000;

        if not TaskScheduler.CanCreateTask() then

            Error(‘CanCreateTask is false.’);

        TaskGuid := TaskScheduler.CreateTask(70001, 0, true, TargetCompany, NotBefore);

        Message(‘Scheduled: ‘ + TaskGuid);

    end;

}

??

——————————
Wolter Kaper
Entocare C.V.
Wageningen
——————————

[Wolter Kaper]

OOPS…! Fellow programmers, sorry, that was not a good test! Contained 1 typing error, hope you have not spotted it. Here’s the corrected test code (the line that does “.CreateTask” has changed):

codeunit 60001 TaskSchedulerTest

{

    //This is the Task to perform.

    trigger OnRun()

    var

        Log: Record MessageLog;

    begin

        Log.Log(3, ‘The test CodeUnit 60001 has run!’);

    end;

    //This should schedule the Task, a chosen number of minutes after NOW.

    procedure ScheduleMe()

    var

        MinutesAfterNow: Integer;

        TargetCompany: Text;

        NotBefore: DateTime;

        TaskGuid: Guid;

    begin

        //Configure the scheduling

        MinutesAfterNow := 5;

        TargetCompany := ‘Entocare CV’; //change it

        //Schedule this CodeUnit

        NotBefore := CreateDateTime(Today(), Time()) + MinutesAfterNow * 60 * 1000;

        if not TaskScheduler.CanCreateTask() then

            Error(‘CanCreateTask is false.’);

        TaskGuid := TaskScheduler.CreateTask(60001, 0, true, TargetCompany, NotBefore);

        Message(‘Scheduled: ‘ + TaskGuid);

    end;

}

Results are still as stated: At the scheduled time, a row in the “Session Events” table appears. But the task does not get done. While it gets done if run by hand. Question: why?
(Attached a corrected zip.)

——————————
Wolter Kaper
Entocare C.V.
Wageningen
——————————
——————————————-

[Kyle Hardin]

So you’ve eliminated code as the problem. Good first step. But this means that (probably) task scheduler isn’t running correctly, or at all.

I recommend you run Task Scheduler in its own Service Tier. This lets you restart it as necessary without affecting users.

You also need to choose an account for the service to use that is an actual BC user with the appropriate roles and permissions. This is an important step.

In the BC Admin tool, make sure everything on the NAS tab is blank. And also make sure Task Scheduler is enabled. See the image I attached.

Once all of this is done, restart the service and then check the event log for any errors.

——————————
Kyle Hardin
NAV Developer
ArcherPoint Inc.
Duluth GA
——————————
——————————————-

[Wolter Kaper]

Dear Kyle,

That sounds like good advice, thanks. But… we’re in the cloud! (BC365)
I probably should have said that, right?
We have an “admin center” but it looks quite different and has no section labeld “NAS” or “Task Scheduler”.
Could it be I need to ask our Business Central service provider? (or “partner”)

We are writing a custom extension for our own tenant, but we are not our own “provider”, is it the right word?

Many regards and thanks,
Wolter

——————————
Wolter Kaper
Entocare C.V.
Wageningen
——————————
——————————————-

[Kyle Hardin]

Shame on me for assuming onprem. And I will confess to not having much SaaS experience with BC.

Does Last Known Error in page inspection when looking at the task scheduler entries show anything helpful?

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/administration/manage-technical-support

——————————
Kyle Hardin
NAV Developer
ArcherPoint Inc.
Duluth GA
——————————
——————————————-

[Kevin Fons]

Have you tried to create a job queue entry to run the codeunit on a schedule?  That is what the job queue entries do in BC.

——————————
Kevin Fons
Senior Application Consultant
Innovia Consulting
Windsor WI
——————————
——————————————-

[Wolter Kaper]

Dear Sir,

I am a bit of a newbie, sorry for that. I just did what this manual page explains:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer/devenv-task-scheduler
But it’s not doing what it promises…! (Or, more likely, I overlooked something)

Is the “job queue” you’re referring to different from the “task schedule” that this page tells me about?
If different: can you point me to a manual page about the Job Queue? I might like to try it.

With best regards,
Wolter

——————————
Wolter Kaper
Entocare C.V.
Wageningen
——————————
——————————————-

[Kevin Fons]

Take a look at this – 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/admin-job-queues-schedule-tasks

——————————
Kevin Fons
Senior Application Consultant
Innovia Consulting
Windsor WI
——————————
——————————————-

[Wolter Kaper]

Ah… it’s in the end-users manual. And I was thinking I had a programming problem.
Thanks!

——————————
Wolter Kaper
Entocare C.V.
Wageningen
——————————
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