A timeout defines the amount of time a Task will wait to complete an action before processing continues.
By default the BP-Method has the timeout set to 5 minutes. You can change this value using the timeout Predefined Variable.
This method is not recommended for all situations. Instead, it should be used only occasionally. During the BP-Method execution, several Engine resources are locked, therefore if you extend the timeout for each BP-Method, the risk of having all the resources locked increases and it may produce a bottleneck.
// timeout is an interval // Increasing it to 20 minutes timeout = '20m'
If you set the timeout predefined variable to null, then the Engine property (Maximum BP-Methods timeout) value applies.
The Administrator can limit the timeout to a maximum for all processes deployed in a specific engine using the engine property Maximum BP-Methods timeout. Maximum BP-Methods timeout is a tool for the Administrator to ensure that the Engine resources are enough to serve all deployed processes. If a BP-Method timeout is greater than the 'Maximum BP-Methods timeout' property, such BP-Method will fail.
The Maximum BP-Methods timeout can be set from Studio Engine Properties as well as from Process Administrator Engine Properties.
When you use Components within a BP-Method, you can set a timeout as one of the component attributes. This timeout applies to the component execution time.
If the BP-Method runs one or more component, although they can have individual timeouts, the BP-Method timeout rules the full processing.
For example, the maximum BP-Method timeout is set to 3 minutes. You define a BP-Method that runs 2 components (Component A and Component B), and both components have the timeout attribute set to 2 minutes.
Component A begins running and finishes in 1 minute, 45 seconds. Although Component B has an individual timeout set to 2 minutes, its execution will not last more than 1 minute, 15 seconds as passed that time the BP-Method execution is aborted.