Auction status
All auctions follow a workflow, starting from when an auction administrator creates an auction, to the time the auction becomes active and bidders bid on the auction, until the auction closes and a winner is declared. The auction administrator also has the ability to close an auction that is ongoing or has not started yet. During this process, the scheduler is responsible for carrying out the workflow actions associated with starting and stopping auctions, processing bids and completing the winning orders.
The auction status is used to keep track of the state of an auction during this workflow process, and is found in the AUSTATUS column of the AUCTION table. Auctions can be in any one of the following states:
- Future (F)
- The auction is scheduled to take place at a future time or date.
- Current (C)
- The auction is currently taking place (bidding has begun).
- Retracted (R)
- The auction was canceled. Only auctions marked future or current can be retracted.
- Bidding Closed (BC)
- The auction is closed and no more bids are accepted.
- Settlement Closed (SC)
- After Bidding Closed (BC), winners have been determined and orders have been processed for winning bids.
The workflow and auction status differ between auction types. The following table describes the
workflow actions, the commands invoked by the auction administrator or scheduler, and the
corresponding auction status for Open Cry, Sealed Bid and Dutch auctions:
| Workflow Action | Command | Open Cry Status | Sealed Bid Status | Dutch Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduler starts the auction when the start time passes. | MonitorAuctions | Current lockflag=0 | Current lockflag=1 | Current lockflag=0 |
| Scheduler determines the highest winning and best bids for Open Cry. | ProcessOpenCryBids | No change | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Scheduler processes autobids. | ProcessAutoBids | No change | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Scheduler determines winning bids for Dutch. | ProcessDutchBids | Not applicable | Not applicable | Bidding Closed lockflag=1 |
| Scheduler closes the auction. | CloseBidding | Bidding Closed | Bidding Closed | Bidding Closed |
| Scheduler processes a final run of autobids. | ProcessAutoBids | Bidding Closed lockflag=1 after final run of autobids | Bidding Closed | Bidding Closed |
| Scheduler processes auctions with a status of Bidding Closed and lockflag=1, and determines winners for Open Cry and Sealed Bid auctions. | FinalizeAuction | Settlement Closed, lockflag=1 | Settlement Closed, lockflag=1 | Settlement Closed, lockflag=1 |
| Scheduler processes bids with a bid status of W. | CompleteOrder | No change | No change | No change |