Schedules allow you to schedule automatic updating of data and calculations. See How to Set Up Schedules in Displayr for more details on how this feature works. This article describes how you can strategically set up schedules to make your document work faster for you and your clients, including:
- Method 1 - Update data sources without having to open the document
- Method 2 - Save recalculated pages in the cache for quick loading
- Method 3 - Schedule long-running analyses to run outside of working hours
Method 1 - Update data sources without having to open the document
If you schedule a data source to update, you don't have to wait until the document opens to recalculate everything. This is particularly helpful in Edit mode. You can recalculate everything before you start working for the day.
You can also use schedules in conjunction with the Create a Separate Data Preparation Document workflow to schedule a data preparation document's calculations and exports to run, and then set up a schedule in your working document to use those updated outputs and republish.
Method 2 - Schedule pages to recalculate and automatically cache for quick loading
If you want to improve speed in View mode, use a schedule to automatically recalculate a page, and, optionally, its views in a published document (e.g., a dashboard). This saves the results (caches them) so that when a viewer goes to the published document in view mode, the already-calculated result is shown to the user, rather than them having to wait for the calculation.
Note that:
- Each page must be selected (i.e., if you select a folder, it will not select the sub-pages). You can select multiple pages simultaneously and add them to a schedule.
- A page's views (if they exist) can also be included in a schedule. The schedule will do the same things as occurs when a user selects a view.
Method 3 - Schedule long-running analyses to run outside of working hours
If you have a long-running analysis, such as a MaxDiff, you can schedule it to start running outside of working hours and finish overnight. That way, you don't have to risk your document slowing down in Edit mode when performing other tasks while the analysis runs.