Tasks

Tasks are the things that need to be scheduled and can represent work items, reservations, meetings, events, etc. All tasks are simple JSON objects with a set of options which determines how the task is scheduled. The only required options are the id and duration of the task.

  // a basic task called 'Task1' that is 60 minutes long
  var task = {id: 'Task1', duration: 60};

Important By default, tasks will be broken into smaller chunks when needed in order to best fit the schedule. If you want a task to be scheduled as one contiguous block of time, set minLength equal to the task duration.

Tasks are JSON objects that are customized using the following properties:

id (required)

The id of the task. Every task must specify a unique id.

duration (required)

The length of the task in minutes.

minLength

The smallest length of time that a task will be scheduled for. By default, Schedule will split up tasks as needed to best fit into the schedule. Set minLength equal to duration if you want to make sure the task is scheduled in one contiguous chunk of time.

dependsOn

An array of task ids that must be complete before the task can be scheduled.

resources

An array of resource ids that must be available before the task can be scheduled. By default all resources in the array must be available. Use a nested array to specify that one of a set of resources must be available.

available

Defines when the task may be scheduled. Specified using any valid Later schedule. The task will never be scheduled for a time when the available schedule is invalid.

priority

The relative priority of the task, higher numbers mean higher priority. Used to determine which task should be scheduled next when there are multiple tasks that could be scheduled (i.e. their dependencies have been met). By default, tasks are scheduled based on how critical it is that they finish on time.

Example tasks:

  // a task that is 60 minutes long
  var t1 = {id: 'Task1', duration: 60};

  // a task that can only be broken up into pieces that are at least 30 min long
  var t2 = {id: 'Task2', duration: 60, minLength: 30};

  // a task that depends on two other tasks
  var t3 = {id: 'Task3', duration: 60, dependsOn: ['Task1', 'Task2']};

  // a task that requires resource A
  var t4 = {id: 'Task4', duration: 60, resources: ['A']};

  // a task that requires resource A AND resource B
  var t5 = {id: 'Task5', duration: 60, resources: ['A', 'B']};

  // a task that requires resource A OR resource B
  var t6 = {id: 'Task6', duration: 60, resources: [['A', 'B']]};

  // a task that requires (resource A OR resource B) and resource C
  var t7 = {id: 'Task7', duration: 60, resources: [['A', 'B'], 'C']};

  // a task that can only be scheduled on weekdays
  var t8 = {
    id: 'Task8',
    duration: 60,
    available: later.parse.text('every weekday')
  };

  // a task with a priority set
  var t9 = {id: 'Task9', duration: 60, priority: 100};

  // a fully customized task
  var t10 = {
    id: 'Task10',
    duration: 360,
    minLength: 60,
    dependsOn: ['Task1', 'Task5', 'Task9'],
    resources: [['A', 'B', 'C'], 'D', 'E'],
    available: later.parse.recur().on(2).dayOfWeek().after('9:00').time(),
    priority: 50
  };

Often times the tasks that your application defines are not in the format that Schedule requires. To make the conversion process easier, Schedule includes a task generator that can be used on any array of objects to produce valid tasks.

  // creating a default task generator
  var t = schedule.tasks();

tasks#id

Used to specify the value or function that should be called to define the id of the task. If a function is specified, it will be passed in the object and index from the input data array.

tasks#duration

Used to specify the value or function that should be called to define the duration of the task. If a function is specified, it will be passed in the object and index from the input data array.

tasks#minLength

Used to specify the value or function that should be called to define the minLength of the task. If a function is specified, it will be passed in the object and index from the input data array.

tasks#dependsOn

Used to specify the value or function that should be called to define the dependsOn array of the task. If a function is specified, it will be passed in the object and index from the input data array.

tasks#resources

Used to specify the value or function that should be called to define the resources array of the task. If a function is specified, it will be passed in the object and index from the input data array.

tasks#available

Used to specify the value or function that should be called to define the available schedule of the task. If a function is specified, it will be passed in the object and index from the input data array.

tasks#priority

Used to specify the value or function that should be called to define the priority schedule of the task. If a function is specified, it will be passed in the object and index from the input data array.

Example usage:

  // the original reservations that we want to make into tasks
  var reservations = [
    {name: 'Joe', length: 4, availability: 'after 12:00'},
    {name: 'Mike', length: 2},
    {name: 'Frank', length: 8},
    {name: 'John', length: 3, availability: 'on Thurs and Fri'},
    {name: 'Peter', length: 1, availability: 'before 10:00am'},
    {name: 'Sam', length: 2},
    {name: 'Alan', length: 2},
    {name: 'James', length: 8},
    {name: 'Steve', length: 1, availability: 'after 12:00 and before 1:00pm'},
    {name: 'Mark', length: 2},
    {name: 'Alex', length: 8}
  ];

  // creating our task generator
  var t = schedule.tasks()
            // use the name as the id
            .id(function(d) { return d.name; })

            // our length is in hours, convert to minutes
            .duration(function(d) {
              return d.length * 60;
            })

            // use later.parse.text to parse text into a usable schedule
            .available(function(d) {
              return d.availability ? later.parse.text(d.availability) : undefined;
            })

            // prioritize our reservations on first come first serve using index
            .priority(function(d, i) {
              return 100 - i;
            })

            // reservations have to be contiguous
            .minSchedule(function(d) {
              return d.length * 60;
            })

            // assume all reservations are using the same resource
            .resources(['E1']);

  // create Schedule tasks from our reservations
  var tasks = t(reservations);