How can I create a run?
Henrik Hofmeister avatar
Written by Henrik Hofmeister
Updated over a week ago

How can I create a run?

When you are ready to put your robot to work, it's time to create a run. A run is a configuration applied to the robot's execution -- that is, how the robot behaves and when it operates. To create a run:

  1. Navigate to the Projects page, select your robot, and click New Run at the top of the screen. This adds the run just below the name of your robot.

  2. Enter a name for the run, then click Continue.

  3. Click the name of the run, then click the Open button in the slide-in panel. You’re presented with the run page where you can edit various attributes of the run, view third-party integrations associated with the run, and initiate and view robot executions using the run’s configuration.

Let’s start with the Configuration tab:

A run's configurable attributes include:

  • Run id: The Run id is used internally and needn't be changed.

  • Run name: The user-assigned name of the run.

  • Number of simultaneous executions: The number of robots that will work to scrape the Web site.

  • Maximum retries: The number of attempts for each input (result)

  • Proxies: The proxy server(s) the robot will route traffic through to/from the Web site.

  • Activate Schedule: Enables user-defined schedule for the run.

  • Activate Timetable: Time periods during which the robot will operate.

Switching to the Integrations tab, you will see lists of third-party integrations and file formats in which to store your robot’s results.

Moving on to the Executions tab, you will see that “This run has no executions yet,” which simply means you haven’t yet put your robot to work. An Execute Now button allows you to launch your robot into action with the current run configuration.

Upon executing a run, the screen changes to list active and historical executions. Each execution is listed with the run name, the Web site to scrape, the status of the run (Starting, Running, etc.), a progress bar and “percentage complete” reading, number of results extracted, a View button, and a Start/Stop button.

Clicking the View button here opens the execution screen, which features two tabs: Information and Results. The Information tab lists an abundance of information about the execution, including a simple log of events. The Results tab lists each set of results scraped from the Web site, along with status and error indicators for each set of results. Screenshots of the Web site are also available to aid in troubleshooting your robot. Also, daylight savings time (DST) is taken into account.

About Retries

When you specify a "Max retries" value greater than 1, the system will automatically re-run the robot for the inputs/results that failed. The maximum value you can specify is 5. This can be useful for robots that extract data from unstable websites or for handling proxy connection issues.

When an input/result is retried, all of its data (rows) is first deleted and the robot is then re-executed with the input/result.

It is possible to manually retry failed or stopped results using the "Retry failed/stopped" button on an execution:

Currently, it is not possible to see that an input/result has been retried.

About Time Schedules

The Time column on the dashboard shows the next execution time in your local time (based on the browser/OS config) but the run is executed in the time zone specified in the run configuration. If you hover the values in the Time column you get the time in your local time zone.

Example 1

  • Run configuration: every day at 03:00, time zone: EST ~ UTC/GMT-5

  • Dashboard is viewed in time zone EST at 12:00 AM (17:00 in UTC)

  • Time: 22:00 (in 11 hours, 03:00-17:00 but one extra hour due to DST) (03:00 in UTC)

Example 2

  • Run configuration: every 5th hour (00, 05, 10, 15, 20), time zone: UTC

  • Dashboard is viewed in time zone EEST at 14:00 (i.e. 11 in UTC)

  • Time: 18:00 (in 4 hours) (15:00 in UTC)

Example 3

  • Run configuration: every 7th hour (00, 07, 14, 21), time zone: UTC

  • Dashboard is viewed in time zone EEST at 19:00 (i.e. 16 in UTC)

  • Time: 00:00 (in 5 hours) (21:00 in UTC)

Example 4

  • Run configuration: every 7th hour (00, 07, 14, 21), time zone: EEST

  • Dashboard is viewed in time zone EEST at 19:00

  • Time: 21:00 (in 2 hours)

Daylight Savings Time (DST)
Due to a bug in the programming runtime we use, there might be issues with certain time zones, e.g. "America/Santiago". To work around this we suggest you use UTC which does not use DST.

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