Enforcing Fixed Time Limits with the Timer Option

In some workflows, it is important to make sure that everyone gets the same amount of time to complete a task, regardless of when they start. This is especially relevant in scenarios where fairness and consistency matter, and where the system should automatically stop the activity once the allowed time is over.

In Clappia, this can be handled using the Timer option available inside the Action Button block. The timer allows you to define how long the system should wait after a button is clicked, or until a specific date and time is reached, before automatically performing an action.

This guide walks through the same example used in the help documentation and explains how it works in practice.

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Example used in this guide

Let’s say you are running an online examination.

• The exam duration is 1 hour
• The exam is scheduled between 3:00 PM and 4:00 PM
• Different candidates may click the start button at slightly different times
• Regardless of when a candidate starts, the exam will end either after one hour or at 4:00 PM, whichever occurs first, so no candidate can continue beyond the scheduled end time.

Setting up the Action Button

Sign in to Clappia and open your app. Go to ‘Design App’ and add an ‘Action Button’ block to the form.

On the right panel, give the button a label, for example: Start Exam.

Under ‘Action on Click’, select ‘Timer’. Once Timer is selected, the timer-related fields become available.

Configuring the timer duration

Since the exam duration is one hour, first define the duration using seconds.

• In the Wait For Seconds field, enter 3600.
• This ensures that once a candidate clicks the Start Exam button, the timer will run for exactly one hour from that moment.

This guarantees that every candidate gets the same total duration, regardless of when they start.

Configuring the fixed end time

Next, define a fixed end time for the exam. So if a candidate starts the exam late, the exam will still end at the designated time.

• Enable Wait till specific date and time.
• Set the date to the same day as the exam. You can either type it in or pull values from a date field here by typing @ and selecting the field.
• Set the time to 4:00 PM or pull field value by typing @ and selecting a time field from your app.

This represents the scheduled end time of the exam.

Configuring what happens when the timer ends

Now choose what should happen once either of the timer conditions is met.

• Under Post Stop Action, select Auto Submit.

With this option, the exam form is automatically submitted when the timer stops and the candidates do not need to manually click Submit.

Save the Action Button configuration.

How this setup works

When a candidate clicks the Start Exam button, both timer conditions start being evaluated.

• The Wait For Seconds timer counts one hour from the moment the button is clicked.
• The Wait till specific date and time timer counts down to 4:00 PM.

Whichever condition is met first will stop the timer and trigger the Post Stop Action.

For example:

• If a candidate clicks Start Exam at 3:00 PM, both timers end at the same time, and the exam submits at 4:00 PM.
• If a candidate clicks Start Exam at 2:50 PM, the one-hour duration completes at 3:50 PM, so the exam is submitted then, even though 4:00 PM has not yet been reached.
• If a candidate starts at 3:10 PM, the form is submitted at 4:00 PM despite not completing the 1 hour time frame.
• This prevents early starters from getting extra time and ensures fairness for all candidates.

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Where this approach is useful beyond exams

While this example uses an examination scenario, the same setup is useful in business contexts such as:

• Time-limited assessments or evaluations
• Compliance or certification tests
• Controlled review windows for approvals
• Any process where users must get a fixed duration, but the activity must also end by a hard deadline