Task Scheduling

Formidable's Task Scheduler provides an easy and manageable way of defining and scheduling cron jobs. The Task Scheduler allows you to expressively define your tasks with your application. All scheduled tasks are defined in the app/Console/Kernel.imba or app/Console/Kernel.ts files, in the schedule method.

Defining Schedules

You may define all of your scheduled tasks in the schedule method of your application's app/Console/Kernel.imbaor app/Console/Kernel.ts files. To get started, let's take a look at an example. In this example, we will schedule a task to be called every day. Within the task's callback we will execute a database query to clear a table:

Imba

app/Console/Kernel.imba

import { ConsoleKernel } from '@formidablejs/framework'
import { DB } from '@formidablejs/framework'
import { Schedule } from '@formidablejs/scheduler'

export class Kernel < ConsoleKernel
    get registered
        return [

        ]

    # Define the application's command schedule.
    schedule schedule\Schedule
        schedule.call(do
            DB.table('recent_users').delete!
        ).everyDay!

TypeScript

app/Console/Kernel.ts

import { ConsoleKernel } from '@formidablejs/framework'
import { DB } from '@formidablejs/framework'
import { Schedule } from '@formidablejs/scheduler'

export class Kernel extends ConsoleKernel {
    get registered(): Array<object> {
        return [
            //
        ]
    }

    /**
     * Define the application's command schedule.
     */
    schedule(schedule: Schedule): void {
        schedule.call(() => {
            DB.table('recent_users').delete()
        }).everyDay()
    }
}

If you would like to view an overview of your scheduled tasks and the next time they are scheduled to run, you may use the schedule:list Craftsman command:

node craftsman schedule:list

Schedule Frequency Options

Below is a list of available methods you can use:

Method	Description	Example
every	Run the task every nth Time	.every(5).minutes()
		.every(2).hours()
		.every(4).days()
everyMinute	Run the task every minute	.everyMinute()
everyHour	Run the task every hour	.everyHour()
everyHourAt	Run the task every hour at the 20th minute	.everyHourAt(20)
everyDay	Run the task every day	.everyDay()
everyDayAt	Run the task every day at 13th hour	.everyDayAt(13)
	Run the task every day at 13th hour and 20th minute	.everyDayAt(13, 20)
everySunday	Run the task every Sunday	.everySunday()
everySundayAt	Run the task every Sunday at 8th hour	.everySundayAt(8)
	Run the task every Sunday at 8th hour and 20th minute	.everySundayAt(8, 20)
everyMonday	Run the task every Monday	.everyMonday()
everyMondayAt	Run the task every Monday at 8th hour	.everyMondayAt(8)
	Run the task every Monday at 8th hour and 20th minute	.everyMondayAt(8, 20)
everyTuesday	Run the task every Tuesday	.everyTuesday()
everyTuesdayAt	Run the task every Tuesday at 8th hour	.everyTuesdayAt(8)
	Run the task every Tuesday at 8th hour and 20th minute	.everyTuesdayAt(8, 20)
everyWednesday	Run the task every Wednesday	.everyWednesday()
everyWednesdayAt	Run the task every Wednesday at 8th hour	.everyWednesdayAt(8)
	Run the task every Wednesday at 8th hour and 20th minute	.everyWednesdayAt(8, 20)
everyThursday	Run the task every Thursday	.everyThursday()
everyThursdayAt	Run the task every Thursday at 8th hour	.everyThursdayAt(8)
	Run the task every Thursday at 8th hour and 20th minute	.everyThursdayAt(8, 20)
everyFriday	Run the task every Friday	.everyFriday()
everyFridayAt	Run the task every Friday at 8th hour	.everyFridayAt(8)
	Run the task every Friday at 8th hour and 20th minute	.everyFridayAt(8, 20)
everySaturday	Run the task every Saturday	.everySaturday()
everySaturdayAt	Run the task every Saturday at 8th hour	.everySaturdayAt(8)
	Run the task every Saturday at 8th hour and 20th minute	.everyFridayAt(8, 20)
onSpecificDays	Run the task every Monday and Friday	.onSpecificDays(['monday', 'friday'])
onSpecificDaysAt	Run the task every Monday and Friday at the 8th hour	.onSpecificDays(['monday', 'friday'], 8)
	Run the task every Monday and Friday at the 8th hour and 20th minute	.onSpecificDays(['monday', 'friday'], 8)
	Run the task every Monday and Friday at the 8th hour and 20th minute	.onSpecificDays(['monday', 'friday'], 8, 20)

List incomplete

Timezones

Using the timezone method, you may specify that a scheduled task's time should be interpreted within a given timezone:

Imba

app/Console/Kernel.imba

schedule.call(do
    DB.table('recent_users').delete!
).timezone('Pacific/Funafuti').everyDay!

TypeScript

app/Console/Kernel.ts

schedule.call(() => {
    DB.table('recent_users').delete()
}).timezone('Pacific/Funafuti').everyDay()

Running The Scheduler

Now that we have learned how to define scheduled tasks, let's discuss how to actually run them on our server. The schedule:work Craftsman command will evaluate all of your scheduled tasks and determine if they need to run based on the server's current time:

node craftsman schedule:work

When not testing, you can use pm2 to run the scheduled tasks in the background:

pm2 start "node craftsman schedule:work"

Crontab Based Task Scheduling (Optional)

If you would like to define your scheduled tasks using the server's cron facility and not use pm2, you may use the schedule:run command. This command will evaluate all of your scheduled tasks and run the tasks that are due.

Before getting started, make sure you have aliased current node version to /usr/bin/node (if you don't have it installed globally yet):

sudo ln -s "$NVM_DIR/versions/node/$(nvm version)/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/node"

Then, make sure the craftsman cli in your project is executable:

chmod +x craftsman

Finally, add cron entry to your server by running the following command:

crontab -e

Add the following line to the crontab file:

* * * * * cd /path-to-your-project && /usr/local/bin/node craftsman --MODE=production schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

This Cron will call the schedule:run command every minute. When the schedule:run command is called, Formidable will evaluate your scheduled tasks and run the tasks that are due.

note

When running the scheduler in a production environment, you should ensure that you have built your project for production using npm run build.