SPSchedule.FromString(recurrenceValue) - syntax/format for recurrence value

This blog posting applies to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

The SPSchedule class allows one to specify repeating schedules for timer jobs using derived classes such as SPMinuteSchedule, SPHourlySchedule, etc. Those are pretty easy to figure out from the SDK (https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.spschedule.aspx).

 

SPSchedule also provides a FromString(recurrenceValue) method that allows you to specify the same kinds of schedules from a text string, but allowable formats for the recurrenceValue string are not well documented. Here are legal formats I’ve discovered through testing.

Formats Used Below

Format	Description	Allowable values
m	minutes	0-59
s	seconds	0-59
ddd	abbreviated name of day of week	mon, tue, wed, thu, fri, sat, sun
d	numeric day of month	1-31
mmm	abbreviated name of month	jan, feb, mar, apr, may, jun, jul, aug, sep, oct, nov, dec
HH:MM:SS	Time of day as hours, minutes, seconds using 24 hour-clock.	00:00:00 - 23:59:59

Minute Schedule

Syntax	Description
every Interval minutes	Repeat every Interval minutes (starting at 0 seconds)
every Interval minutes at Begin	Repeat every Interval minutes starting at Begin seconds
every Interval minutes between Begin and End	Repeat every Interval minutes starting between Begin and End seconds

 

Parameter	Format	Sample
Interval	m	every 15 minutes
Begin	s	every 15 minutes at 0
End	s	every 15 minutes between 0 and 15

Hourly schedule

Syntax	Description
hourly at Begin	Repeat every hourstarting at Begin minutes
hourly between Begin and End	Repeat every hour starting between Begin and End minutes

 

Parameter	Format	Sample
Begin	m	hourly at 1
End	m	hourly between 1 and 10

Daily schedule

Syntax	Description
daily at Begin	Repeat every daystarting at Begin time
daily between Begin and End	Repeat every day starting between Begin and End times

 

Parameter	Format	Sample
Begin	HH:MM:SS	daily at 09:00:00
End	HH:MM:SS	daily between 09:00:00 and 17:30:00

Weekly schedule

Syntax	Description
weekly at Begin	Repeat every weekstarting at Begin day and time
weekly between Begin and End	Repeat every week starting between Begin and End day and times

 

Parameter	Format	Sample
Begin	ddd HH:MM:SS	weekly at mon 09:00:00
End	ddd HH:MM:SS	weekly between mon 09:00:00 and fri 17:30:00

Monthly schedule

Syntax	Description
monthly at Begin	Repeat every monthstarting at Begin day of month and time
monthly between Begin and End	Repeat every month starting between Begin and End day of month and times

 

Parameter	Format	Sample
Begin	d HH:MM:SS	monthly at 1 09:00:00
End	d HH:MM:SS	monthly between 1 09:00:00 and 15 17:30:00

Yearly schedule

Syntax	Description
yearly at Begin	Repeat every yearstarting at Begin month, day of month and time
yearly between Begin and End	Repeat every year starting between Begin and End month, day of month and times

 

Parameter	Format	Sample
Begin	mmm d HH:MM:SS	yearly at jan 1 09:00:00
End	mmm d HH:MM:SS	yearly between feb 1 09:00:00 and apr 15 17:30:00

Comments

• Anonymous
  March 21, 2007
  Nice post! There are few like this around, I guess you could help me with some questions: Do you know what happens if you don't set the End time? Would that means that the job will start on the exact time of the begin value? And if for example the repeating time is set to every 5 minutes, and the task takes 10 minutes to complete, what happens there? Thanks

• Anonymous
  July 02, 2007
  How about adding this to the Community Content section of the MSDN page? http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.spschedule.fromstring.aspx

• Anonymous
  August 16, 2007
  I need to create a schedule for a service that needs to run every few seconds. Is this possible? Should I just create a new class that inherits from SPSchedule?

• Anonymous
  February 19, 2009
  SharePoint SPSchedule.FromString(recurrenceValue) - syntax/format for recurrence value Using Javascript