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When working with FlowX.AI components, there are multiple scenarios in which timer expressions are needed. There are two timer expressions formats supported:
  • Cron expressions - used for Cycle timers (Timer Start Events and non-interrupting Timer Boundary Events) and to define the expiry time on processes
  • ISO 8601 - used to define dates, durations, and repeating intervals for timer events

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Cron expressions

A cron expression is a string made up of six mandatory subexpressions (fields) that each specifies an aspect of the schedule (for example, * * * * * *). These fields, separated by white space, can contain any of the allowed values with various combinations of the allowed characters for that field.
A field may be an asterisk (*), which always stands for “first-last”. For the day-of-the-month or day-of-the-week fields, a question mark (?) may be used instead of an asterisk.
Important: Only Spring cron expressions are permissible for configuration. Refer to the official documentation for detailed information on configuring Spring Cron expressions.
Subexpressions:
  1. Seconds
  2. Minutes
  3. Hours
  4. Day-of-Month
  5. Month
  6. Day-of-Week
An example of a complete cron-expression is the string 0 0 12 ? * FRI - which means every Friday at 12:00:00 PM. More details: Scheduling cron expressions

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Cron Expressions are used in the following example:

  • Process definition - Expiry time - a user can set up a expiryTime function on a process, for example, a delay of 30s will be set up like:
Process definition settings with the expiry time field set to a cron expression

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ISO 8601

ISO 8601 is an international standard covering the worldwide exchange and communication of date and time-related data. It can be used to standardize the following: dates, time of delay, time intervals, recurring time intervals, etc. More details: ISO 8601 date format ISO 8601 duration format

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ISO 8601 format is used in the following examples:

  • Timer events - a Definition with the Duration timer type, for example PT30M on an interrupting timer boundary event that limits how long a receive task waits for a message
ISO 8601 dates and times:
Timer configuration with an ISO 8601 duration used as a response timeout
  • Actions - Timer expression - it can be used if a delay is required on that action
Action edit dialog with the timer expression field used to delay the action
Last modified on October 1, 2026