Scheduling
Schedule a Bot Control message for later or on a repeat, and what the Automation module has to do with it.
You can schedule a composed message from Bot Control with Schedule….
Options#
Once at a date and time.
Daily, weekly (a weekday) or monthly (a day of the month) at a time of day and time zone.
Scheduled messages go through the same scheduler as /schedule create, so they appear in the Scheduled messages list, where you can pause, resume or delete them. Messages are sent as you wrote them: template variables are not replaced.
Automation must be on#
Scheduled messages run through the Automation module. While Automation is off, the scheduler postpones its work, and a one-time message whose time passes is skipped. So the dashboard does not let you create a new schedule while Automation is off:
The Schedule dialog shows a warning, links to the Modules page and cannot be submitted.
The server refuses the request too, with the message "Automation must be enabled before scheduled messages can be created."
Switch Automation on in Modules, and scheduling is available immediately.
Checks#
The same channel, permission and ping checks as a normal send apply when you create the schedule, and the bot sends the message at the chosen time. The bot does not need to be online while you create it.