Learn how to schedule a start date or date range your for your variants.*
This article covers the setup of variant scheduling for content to appear at specific points in time. The following topics are included here:
What is variant scheduling?
Variant scheduling involves defining a specific time period for content to appear within pages, rows, and/or menus. A common use case is scheduling kids' content to be shown Monday-Friday in the afternoons for post-school viewing, or scheduling an alternate mid-week and weekend layout to reflect the weekly event calendar for a sporting competition.
Note: Scheduling does not control the underlying assets and when they're available to end-users. The availability of assets is linked to Offers, which we discuss with you during your project discovery phase.
How does variant scheduling work?
When you have multiple page variants set up, apps read the variants from right to left and then display the first available match for the user's profile, device, and settings. In other words, they'll check the device type, user group, language, segmentation tags, and dates configured for each variant until they land on the appropriate page to show the user.
With scheduling set, the page variants still read right to left, but only when the specified date and time range arrives will the scheduled content be presented in the app and accessible to your end-users.
Page variant parameters will always override the variant parameters set at a row level. To ensure the availability of scheduled rows, we recommend adding them to existing pages that are already live.
How do I set up a variant schedule?
Follow the steps below to add a schedule to your page, row, or menu variant.
Note: End dates - by default, for performance reasons, page, menu and row variant schedules automatically expire 3 years after the start date. This limit applies when you manually set an end date as well as when you use the default end date of Any, and includes both one-off and recurring schedules. It's important to be aware of this as once the end date has passed, the associated content is no longer visible to users in their apps.
To set a schedule for a page or menu variant, in the relevant variant tab, select Add Timeframe.*
This opens the Edit Date Period window, where you can configure the dates and times for your variant schedule.
To set a schedule for a row variant, start by clicking on the row tile to display the row details panel.
In the row details panel, select Add Timeframe* in the bottom left-hand side.
This opens the Edit Date Period window, where you can configure the dates and times for your row variant schedule.
*In AXIS 9.5, the Any Date → Edit link is renamed Add Timeframe.
Note: To avoid confusion over variant availability we advise having a precise variant labeling method in place for any specific date schedules.
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Determine a Start and an (optional) End date for your variant. By default, the start date is the current date, and the end date is set to Any (but note the 3-year cap mentioned above).
2. To specify your own start date or date period, select the calendar picker option and enter your dates. You can also enter the start and end time for the variant here.
Note: This is a 12-hour clock, so remember to specify AM or PM.
3. To add a recurring date period, select the 
link to display further options.
Choose the recurrence schedule options you want for the variant: will it be shown: every day or only on specific days of the week, all day or only within certain hours, every week of the month, or at specific weekly intervals only.
To remove the recurrence, select the 
link.
To save your changes, select the 
button.
With variant scheduling set, details appear underneath the parameter fields. Hover over the date for further information.
Variant scheduling for pages and menus:
Variant scheduling for rows:
