OFBiz "temporal expressions" are a formal system or grammar used to describe the timing associated with the occurrence of recurring system events. Each expression represents a declaration about when and how often an Event may occur. Expressions may be used as single declarations, for example, run a Service every day at 9:00 pm or as a union, intersection, or difference of one or more ranges of time.
Using the OFBiz temporal expressions tool, you may edit an existing expression—OFBiz comes with several predefined—and/or create your own expressions and use them in conjunction with other OFBiz business processing logic.
To get started with the Temporal Expressions WebTools tool, either navigate to the WebTools main web page and select the Temporal Expressions link, or go directly to the tool's URL located at:
https://localhost:8443/webtools/control/findTemporalExpression
If you have not already logged in, you will be prompted to log in. Enter the administrator's username and password. If these have not changed since initial system download, the administrative user's name is "admin" and the password is "ofbiz".
You can edit or create temporal expressions by following these steps:
- To list all currently defined temporal expressions, leave the Find Temporal Expression HTML form empty and click the Find button. This will bring up a list of the available expressions.
- To modify any existing expression, select the navigation link provided adjacent to the expression. This will bring up the Temporal Expression Maintenance HTML form. Make changes to this expression as desired. Click the Save button to make the changes effective.
- To add a new temporal expression, click the Create button from the Find Temporal Expression page. This will bring up the Temporal Expression Maintenance page where you may add a new expression of the types supported. Once a new expression has been defined, click the Save button.
- There is no need to restart OFBiz to make the changes effective.
Temporal expressions are used throughout the OFBiz code base as a consistent method of describing schedules and Event timing. Expressions are persistent in the OFBiz database (the TemporalExpresson, TemporalExpressionAssoc, and TemporalExpressionChild entities) and managed as resources available for use by any OFBiz Application, Component, or end user. The WebTools Temporal Expressions tool provides an HTML form-based interface for managing these OFBiz resources.
For the curious, there is a really nice write-up on OFBiz temporal expressions on the OFBiz Wiki:
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBENDUSER/ Temporal+Expressions