BOT automation sometimes gives error on creating PDF: The request took too long to process.

[Surdusvacca]

Hi,

I have an app with an automation bot that some days has a lot of errors on creating PDFs.

The app is used for creating parking permits for drivers.
A tablet is placed where the drivers can create the permits by them selves and have it automatically printed.

When they hit SAVE on the form, the bot starts run this action:

After that, it generates the PDF file

The generated PDF file (when it succeeds) has a size of 65 kb

When it fails on creation, I see this in the log:

All errors has same ErrorMessage:
Error Message: Stop executing after step Generate PDF, because the request took too long to process.

Some of the errors has Execution Time (In seconds) up to 2 and 3 thousand.

I am still pretty new to this appsheet and learning all the time.
The licenses is Appsheet Core.

Can someone guide me in direction of what could cause the errors?
It's super frustrating when the drivers are in a que in a already busy environment and they dont understand why their parking permits are not printed. 🙂

Please let me know if I did not provide good enough information.

All the best

[AleksiAlkio]

What is your PDF template? Can you take a printscreen from it. And what are you doing with the PDF after it's generated?

[Surdusvacca]

Ofcourse, will try to explain 🙂
My PDF template is this:

My file storage is Dropbox - You may ask why 🙂

Actually for about 1 year now, I have had the Parking app running with Google sheet as 'database' and inside the sheets, I used Appscript to do all the handling. I guy from this forum said I could do exactly the same with appsheet handling everything, and finally here I am now. 
The database is Appsheet Database, and no scripts at all.
When I started 1 year ago, I found out that Dropbox can sync instant from cloud to pc.
Google Drive and other providers was very random in syncing time, sometimes 5 seconds, sometimes 60 seconds - it was too unstable for me.
So, I went with Dropbox because the PDF file is sync to the pc within 1 second.

This app now is also storing the PDF file to Dropbox.
On the tablet which is running the Form, in the background Dropbox is installed and receives the PDF file.
I have Foldermill installed as well. This software prints the PDF immediately when it shows up in the dropbox folder. After printing, foldermill deletes the PDF.
That's basically the setup.

You need more information? 
By the way:
Last night I saw this

There is no sensitive data or images in the app/template.
Would it help me do disable this, or has it nothing to do with my errors?

[AleksiAlkio]

That option doesn't have anything to do with this. The template is simple, so that's not the reason either. What are your expressions with those actions? Is there any complex ones? Have you checked if the Audit history shows more details?

[Surdusvacca]

The actions is this:

Truck Number:

Pause Start:

Pause End:

Timestamp: =NOW()

Valid Until: =NOW() +1

The Audit history show no errors, everything is succes:

The one I have marked above, is this one with error in Automation monitor

One thing I noticed though, is that my 2 columns Pause Start and Pause End is type Time

But in the Automation monitor they show like a date (Old date)

Visually it is not a problem, nowhere in the appview or the printed PDF the date is shown.
I dont know if that is normal behavior when you have columns with type as Time the system see it as a date also?

[AleksiAlkio]

The Audit log shows more than 400 seconds for the add row which is weird. And because of that, the Bot timeouts. The data change Bot has 2 minutes timeout limit. With the schedule Bot it's 5 minutes.

In general.. the time always has a date component as well. Maybe that's the reason for the difference. Buy that's not the reason for rhis behavior either.

Would you please check the Add row details what it shows.

[AleksiAlkio]

Is it possible that the device has been without internet connection  at that moment? 

[Surdusvacca]

Detail from audit log of add row:

The 2. last line Performance is ridiculously long. I've pasted that line into notepad:

I am sorry, I really dont know what to look for here 😕

Is it possible that the device has been without internet connection  at that moment? 
Yes that is an option. Next time I have the chance I will see if the eventviewer on the PC can guide me in any direction about loss of internet.

Thanks AleksiAlkio.

[AleksiAlkio]

Was that row added to your data source when this happened? Are you able to see it?

[Surdusvacca]

If I understand you correctly, then yes, I could see it in the overview.
But I have no idea if they were visible immediately or after many many seconds. I was not watching when the errors started 😕

There were 8 errors total in the log that day with high timeouts from 400 to 3000 seconds. All 8 errors was also visible in the overview the next day when I looked.
And actually even though there was timeout, somehow, much later, the PDFs was printed anyways.
I spoke with the team the day after and they said that in the printer they found 5-6 parking permits 🙂

After these 8 errors everything is Complete with success. Average execution time is 12 seconds which I think is okay?

So maybe the problem could be loss of internet. I will definitely follow up on that one.
That Surface Pro 4 had release in 2015 and is hanging on a wall without dockingstation, so it is running WiFi. Could be the issue.

I will see if the manager of that department agree that he should by a new one 🙂

[AleksiAlkio]

What do you mean by "in the overview"? Where?

[Surdusvacca]

Sorry for not being clear.
Yes it was added in the Appsheet Database, and by overview I just mean, the 'View' created to show all entries.

From the database:

But this can seems a little strange.
The driver with Truck Number bn77ses adds an entry 18:38 (See Process > Steps > Detail)

The execution time of 430 seconds is around 7 minutes which matches with the next Complete here:

But the next entry in the Automation log is error again, same truck number.

This is actually the same behavior when I check the other with error, the next entry is Complete, then Error and so on.

Maybe I shouldn't think too much about this, cause I think the drivers are getting impatient and after 1-2-3 minutes with no parking permits printed, they will try to add one more. So maybe this error, complete, error is more due to drivers adding more than one time.
But as you can see at the first screenshot, doubles entries are added, so the entry with error in the first place, is eventually added after some time 😕