💃 Make time your playground 🕺

Good morning, Salesforce Nerds! Ever wished you had a superpower like bending time to automate boring tasks, clean up messy data, or kick off jobs at the perfect moment? ⌚️ 

Well, in the Salesforce universe, you kind of can!

Say hello to Schedulable Apex - the trusty sidekick that lets you run code on a schedule of your choosing. 😁 

With just a few lines of code, you can automate tasks to run daily, weekly, or even every hour.

Time management? Check. ✅ 

Efficiency? Double-check. ✅✅ 

Let’s dive into the world of Apex scheduling, and learn how to make time your playground!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Make time your playground

• Why Do You Need It?

• How Does It Work?

• Why It Beats Manual Processes

• Bonus: Combining With Batch Apex

• Time Is On Your Side

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Why Do You Need It?

Before we get to the "how," let's talk about the "why." 🤔 

Imagine this:

You need to clean up old leads every day, update records from an external system weekly, or run batch jobs at night so your users don’t get annoyed by slowdowns during business hours.

Enter Schedulable Apex, a super handy tool that allows you to program your Salesforce org to run code exactly when you need it. 🔥 

Without schedulable Apex, you’d be stuck manually triggering processes or relying on time-consuming workflows.

Schedulable Apex gives you the power to automate and schedule these processes. 💪 

And the best part?

It runs on Salesforce’s infrastructure, so you’re not burning through your personal clock to make sure things are running smoothly. 👍️ 

HOW TO DO THE THING

How Does It Work?

At the heart of it all is the Schedulable interface, which is Salesforce’s way of saying, “Hey, I’m cool with being run at specific times.” 😎 

By implementing this interface in your class, you can tell Salesforce when to execute the code.

It’s like setting up an alarm clock, but instead of hitting snooze, it actually works every time. ⏰ 

Here’s how the magic happens:

public class MyScheduledClass implements Schedulable {
    public void execute(SchedulableContext sc) {
        // Your logic goes here
        System.debug('This scheduled job is running!');
    }
}

Setting the Schedule

So, you’ve written your class, implemented the Schedulable interface, and now you’re ready to tell Salesforce when to run it.

For this, Salesforce uses a cron expression - a fancy way of saying “this is the schedule I want.” 📆 

Here’s how you schedule your class to run:

String cronExpression = '0 0 12 * * ?'; // Every day at noon
MyScheduledClass myJob = new MyScheduledClass();
System.schedule('My Scheduled Job', cronExpression, myJob);

In this example, we’re telling Salesforce to run MyScheduledClass every day at noon. ☀️ 

The cron expression 0 0 12 * * ? is basically saying, “Hey, at zero seconds, zero minutes, 12 o’clock, on any day of any month, run this thing.”

And just like that, your job is scheduled!

A Crash Course in Cron Expressions

Now, cron expressions might look a little like they were invented by time-traveling wizards, but they’re actually pretty simple once you get the hang of it. 😕 

Here’s a breakdown:

1. Seconds: 0–59

2. Minutes: 0–59

3. Hours: 0–23

4. Day of the Month: 1–31

5. Month: 1–12

6. Day of the Week: 1–7 (1 = Sunday)

So, the cron expression 0 0 12 * * ? breaks down like this:

• 0 seconds

• 0 minutes

• 12 hours (noon)

• Every day

• Every month

• Any day of the week (the ? means "any").

Want your job to run every Monday at 5 a.m.? Easy! 🙂 

String cronExpression = '0 0 5 ? * 2'; // Every Monday at 5 a.m.

With this, you’re telling Salesforce to execute your code every Monday at 5 a.m.

CHECKING OUT THE BENEFITS

Why It Beats Manual Processes

You might be thinking, “Why bother with scheduling when I can just do these tasks manually or use standard automation tools like Flows or Workflow Rules?”

Good question, but here’s why Schedulable Apex should be in your toolbox 🧰 

🎮️ Control and Flexibility: You can run complex logic at any interval. While standard automation tools are great for many tasks, they can’t handle every use case. With Schedulable Apex, the power is in your hands (literally).

🔄 Handling Larger Datasets: When combined with Batch Apex, Schedulable Apex can tackle massive datasets efficiently. Flows and workflow rules just aren’t built for that level of processing power.

📈 Optimizing Resources: Instead of running heavy processes during peak hours, you can schedule them for off-peak times, reducing the impact on your users and maintaining optimal performance.

I LOVE ME A BONUS

Bonus: Combining With Batch Apex

Schedulable Apex’s true potential shines when it’s paired with Batch Apex. 🏗️ 

Need to process 10,000 records overnight? With Schedulable Apex and Batch Apex, that’s no problem.

public class MyBatchClass implements Database.Batchable<SObject> {
    public Database.QueryLocator start(Database.BatchableContext bc) {
        return Database.getQueryLocator([SELECT Id FROM Account]);
    }

    public void execute(Database.BatchableContext bc, List<SObject> scope) {
        // Logic to process each batch of records
    }

    public void finish(Database.BatchableContext bc) {
        System.debug('Batch process finished!');
    }
}

Schedule this class with System.scheduleBatch or just combine it with your Schedulable Apex class.

Now your org’s heavy lifting happens in the background, while you focus on more important things. 🪨 

YES IT IS

Time Is On Your Side

With Schedulable Apex, you have the power to automate tasks, schedule processes, and make time your playground. 🛝 

Whether it’s cleaning up data, running complex reports, or handling heavy record processing, Schedulable Apex gives you the tools to work smarter, not harder.

So next time you find yourself wishing for more hours in the day, just remember - you’ve already got a time wizard in your pocket.

Now go forth, and bend time to your will! 🧙 

SOUL FOOD

Today’s Principle

and now....Salesforce Memes