Timer - Read

Declaration

<AMTIMER ACTIVITY="read" RESULTVARIABLE="text" SCALE="text (options)" SESSION="text" />

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Description

Calculates the time that elapsed since execution of a prior Timer - Start activity and populates a variable with the result without stopping the timer.

Practical usage

This activity is primarily used in the middle of a Timer - Start and Timer - Stop step to gauge the execution time up to a specific point in the task. It is ideal for calculating the elapsed time between the start and end of a particular process or operation within a task, in contrast to the actual time needed to perform the task entirely.

Parameters

General

Property Type Required Default Markup Description
Populate variable with elapsed time Text Yes (Empty) RESULTVARIABLE="myVar" The name of an existing variable to populate with the elapsed time.
NOTE: Calculation is based on the total amount of time that passed between the start of a previous Start Timer activity and the start of this activity.
Time Scale Text (options) No Seconds SCALE="minutes" The time scale to be used in calculating the elapsed time. The available options are:
  • milliseconds - The time will be calculated using milliseconds.
  • seconds (default) - The time will be calculated using seconds.
  • minutes - The time will be calculated using minutes.
  • hours - The time will be calculated using hours.
Session Text Yes TimerSession1 SESSION="TimeSess2" The session name previously established by a Timer - Start step that this activity should associate with. Timer sessions allow several timer-based operations to run simultaneously within a single task. This parameter's default value is TimerSession1.

Description

Error Causes

On Error

Example

NOTE:
  • Copy and paste the sample AML code below directly into the Task Builder Steps Panel.
  • To successfully run the sample code, update parameters containing user credentials, files, file paths, or other information specific to the task to match your environment.

Description

This sample task illustrates execution of the Timer - Start, Timer - Stop, and Timer - Read activities.

Copy 
<AMVARIABLE NAME="timeVar" />
<AMTIMER SESSION="myTime" />
<AMSHOWDIALOG MESSAGE="This step is used primarily to increase the elapsed time. Press Ok to proceed." />
<AMTIMER ACTIVITY="read" RESULTVARIABLE="timeVar" SESSION="myTime" />
<AMSHOWDIALOG>The task execution time to this point is %timeVar% seconds.</AMSHOWDIALOG>
<AMTIMER ACTIVITY="stop" RESULTVARIABLE="timeVar" SESSION="myTime" />
<AMSHOWDIALOG>The total task execution time is %timeVar% seconds.</AMSHOWDIALOG>