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Setting Timeout Values in Amazon SWF

Quotas on Timeout Values

Timeout values are always declared in seconds, and can be set to any number of seconds up to a year (31536000 seconds)—the maximum execution limit for any workflow or activity. The special value NONE is used to set a timeout parameter to "no timeout", or infinite, but the maximum limit of a year still applies.

Workflow Execution and Decision Task Timeouts

You can set timeout values for your Workflow and Decision tasks when registering the workflow type. For example:

https://swf.us-east-1.amazonaws.com.cn
RegisterWorkflowType
{
  "domain": "867530901",
  "name": "customerOrderWorkflow",
  "version": "1.0",
  "description": "Handle customer orders",
  "defaultTaskStartToCloseTimeout": "600",
  "defaultExecutionStartToCloseTimeout": "3600",
  "defaultTaskList": { "name": "mainTaskList" },
  "defaultChildPolicy": "TERMINATE"
}     

This workflow type registration sets the defaultTaskStartToCloseTimeout to 600 seconds (10 minutes), and defaultExecutionStartToCloseTimeout to 3600 seconds (1 hour).

For more information about workflow type registration, see Registering a Workflow Type with Amazon SWF, and RegisterWorkflowType in the Amazon Simple Workflow Service API Reference.

You can override the value set for defaultExecutionStartToCloseTimeout by specifying executionStartToCloseTimeout i.

Activity Task Timeouts

You can set timeout values for your activity tasks when registering the activity type. For example:

https://swf.us-east-1.amazonaws.com.cn
RegisterActivityType
{
  "domain": "867530901",
  "name": "activityVerify",
  "version": "1.0",
  "description": "Verify the customer credit",
  "defaultTaskStartToCloseTimeout": "600",
  "defaultTaskHeartbeatTimeout": "120",
  "defaultTaskList": { "name": "mainTaskList" },
  "defaultTaskScheduleToStartTimeout": "1800",
  "defaultTaskScheduleToCloseTimeout": "5400"
}     

This activity type registration sets the defaultTaskStartToCloseTimeout to 600 seconds (10 minutes), the defaultTaskHeartbeatTimeout to 120 seconds (2 minutes), the defaultTaskScheduleToStartTimeout to 1800 seconds (30 minutes) and defaultTaskScheduleToCloseTimeout to 5400 seconds (1.5 hours).

For more information about activity type registration, see Registering an Activity Type with Amazon SWF, and RegisterActivityType in the Amazon Simple Workflow Service API Reference.

You can override the value set for defaultTaskStartToCloseTimeout by specifying taskStartToCloseTimeout when scheduling the activity task.

See Also

Amazon SWF Timeout Types