Rule Scheduling Through Calendars: IOA Calendar Facility

You can simplify the specification of scheduling criteria for rules by using calendar definitions. A calendar definition consists of a defined schedule (for example, Mondays through Fridays in each week in each month) which can be applied to rules.

Calendars are defined in the IOA Calendar facility. Each calendar is assigned a unique name, which can be specified in rule definitions. A particular calendar, or schedule, only needs to be defined once.

Specification of the name of a calendar in rule definitions causes that calendar to be used to schedule those rules.

Two types of calendars can be defined:

• Regular
• Periodic

Regular calendars contain schedules that can be easily defined using Basic Scheduling parameters. These calendars consist of scheduling dates or days (of the week) which can be fixed according to monthly patterns.

Example 1

• WEEKDAYS – schedules rules each Monday through Friday in each month
• WEEKENDS – schedules rules each Saturday and Sunday in each month
• QUARTERLY – schedules rules on the last day of each quarter: March 31, June 30, Sept. 30, Dec. 31

Regular calendars are useful when a large number of rules have the same schedule. The schedule can be defined once in a calendar and the calendar can be specified in relevant rules to individually define that schedule in each rule definition.

Periodic calendars are useful in situations where basic scheduling criteria would be difficult to define because they do not easily conform to fixed day or date of the week and month breakdowns.

Example 2

PAYCAL – Schedules missions, for example, payroll, every other Wednesday. Scheduling occurs on the first, third, and (if there is one) fifth Wednesday of some months. Scheduling occurs on the second and fourth Wednesday of other months.

The IOA Calendar facility is described in IOA Calendar Facility ctoug2020.