Running Your Task
This is the third part of the 4-part guide meant to introduce you to most of the functionality of Sneakers AIO.
This part of the guide covers running a task.
Table of Contents:
Controlling Your Tasks
Starting, Stopping & Pausing Tasks
Scheduling Tasks
When to Start a Task?
While Your Task is Running
Task Status
Manually Completing a Failed Task
Solving Captcha
Input Required
Next Steps
Monitoring Stock
Controlling Your Tasks
Starting, Stopping & Pausing Tasks
You can start a single task by clicking the button next to the task you'd like to start.
Once a task is started, you can pause it by right clicking it and clicking the pause option.
Once a task is started, you can stop it by clicking the button next to the task you'd like to stop.
Task Controls: At the top of the Tasks screen, you will find three buttons that look like the buttons below. We'll refer to this as the "task controls". The first button starts tasks, the second pauses tasks & the third stops tasks.
Filtering Tasks: You can filter tasks using the search bar in the top left. The search bar is case insensitive and searches through all the visible text of each task (aside from the status). All tasks will be displayed if nothing is inputted.
WARNING: Be careful with filtering tasks, as tasks which are hidden can still be ran (more on this below).
Selecting Tasks: You can (de)select tasks by clicking the check box on the left side of them. A task is selected if it has a check mark filling the check box. You can (de)select all of the currently filtered task by clicking the check box above the task list (the first check box under the "New Task" button).
Using Task Controls: When you use any of the task controls, it will first target selected tasks (even if they are hidden due to a filter). If no tasks are selected, it will target all visible filtered tasks. If there is no filter, it will target all tasks.
You can easily check whether the task controls will target all tasks, selected tasks, or filtered tasks, by hovering your mouse over the task controls and waiting for the tooltip to appear.
Scheduling Tasks
You can schedule tasks to start at a certain date & time with the task scheduling feature.
NOTE: Tasks lose their schedule time if you close the application.
- Right click the task you'd like to schedule.
- Click the "schedule" option.
- Input your desired start date & click the Schedule Task button.
- Choose the tasks you'd like to schedule using the search filter or via selecting their checkboxes. There is an Explanation of filtering & selecting tasks in the box above.
- Click the button next to the task controls.
- Input your desired start date & click the Schedule Tasks button.
Task Selection Priority: When you schedule multiple tasks, it will first target selected tasks (even if they are hidden due to a filter). If no tasks are selected, it will target all visible filtered tasks. If there is no filter, it will target all tasks.
When to Start a Task?
If the product you'd like to purchase is already available, you can start the task whenever you'd like. Assuming the product is releasing at a certain time, refer to the following:
Shopify: We recommend starting the task ~20 seconds before the release if you have a low retry delay. If you have a higher retry delay, it may be worth starting the task 1-2 minutess before the drop in case of an early release.
Footsites: If you are using an account you should start the task before the waiting room is live (likely around 10-15 minutes before the release). If you aren't using an account, you should start the task when the waiting room is live (likely around 5-10 minutes before the release). If there is no waiting room, you can start the task ~20 seconds before the release.
In either case, you may find it useful to use the task scheduler.
While Your Task is Running
Task Status
You can monitor the status of your task via the status column within the task.
Generally the status will change in the following order:
- Waiting Room (when there is a footsites waiting room)
- Finding Product
- Carting Product
- Waiting in Queue (when there is a shopify queue)
- Checking Out
Warning Status: If the status appears in this color, the task is paused. This can happen due to the following:
- You paused the task.
- The task is waiting for captcha or user input.
- All of your proxies are in use or rate limited.
Stopped Status: If the status appears in this color, the task was stopped. This will happen if you stop the task or if it fails for some reason. Even if the task failed, you may still be able to checkout — the next box explains how.
Although Sneakers AIO features a restock monitor, Shopify tasks will attempt to wait for a restock if the product is sold out rather than stopping. The reason for this is some products will initially be released with 0 stock and are later updated with stock.
If you see this message, you can either let the task continue to run in hopes of a restock or click the stop button.
If you see this message before the release occurs, wait until after the release before stopping the task, as the stock may be updated at release time.
Manually Completing a Failed Task:
In some cases, there may be significant changes made to a website which cause the task to fail. We do our best to comply with these changes quickly, although the task may fail when the changes first appear.
If a task fails and has passed the "Adding to Cart" status, you can right click the task & click "Open Checkout" to manually complete the product checkout.
Solving Captcha
If your task isn't using a captcha solving service, you'll have to manually solve captchas.
If a task requires a captcha to be solved, the captcha solver will automatically open. From there all you have to do is select your Google account (optional) and solve the captcha.
Input Required
If your task mode is set to "Input Mode" you will likely have to input some information when the item is carted. This can also happen on rare occasions in other Shopify task modes, if the website requires you to answer a question to cart the product.
When a task requires input, it will automatically open an input window for you. From there, you can follow the on-screen instructions.
We also recommend keeping the "Remember Answers" box checked within the input window, to avoid having to answer the same question(s) multiple times.
Next Steps
You now know how to run tasks & what to expect from doing so.
Click here to continue with monitoring stock.