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The Command Timer allows you to set an interval between the time a Command (application) is activated and before any further actions are performed by the Rule that triggered it. For example, your application may need to import data that has been stored using an Inbound Rule, or your application may be generating the data to be transmitted using an Outbound Rule.
In the case of these two examples, it would be necessary for MailRules to wait until the application has finished before the rules could continue.
If the application being triggered is a standard executable program (for example, Microsoft Access) then in most cases it will not be necessary to use the timer because MailRules can monitor the application activity.
If you were to indicate that a batch file was to be activated by MailRules and the batch file activated another batch file & terminated, MailRules could only be monitor the first batch file process and would activate the Outbound Rule once it had finished. It is for this situation that the command timer exists: MailRules can NOT monitor any subsequent or spawned process that the initial command may activate.
The timer allows you to set a specific time period between the start of the rule and the sending of the outbound message.
A point to note here is that a value of zero in the timer will release the Outbound Rule as soon as the first process has ended.
If the timer is set to a value greater than zero the MailRules will release the Outbound Rule after the specified time. The timer starts from the time the command is executed not the end of the command process. This means that the timer interval should also take into account the amount of time that the first and any subsequent commands will require to complete their processes.
When a rule is activated, either by schedule or manually, MailRules will note that there is a command to be activated prior to sending the message and if the timer is set to zero it will monitor the command process until it has ended, at which time the message will be sent.
If the Command timer is set to an interval of 3 minutes, MailRules will activate the command but wait until 3 minutes from the time the command is activated before sending the message.