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Steve Odom

2005-Dec-11 16:40 UTC

Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?

I want to execute a method in a controller at scheduled intervals throughout
the day. Can others provide examples of how they do this?

The excerpt below from the wiki page "
http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToRunBackgroundJobsInRails/versions/1"
is basically what I want to do, but I can''t find enough other
information to
fill in the gaps:

<snip>
Use cron or the like to run ruby code (a helper to your app).

You could have a cron job launch your "escalate_bugs" script.

For info regarding accessing your data from a ruby script see
HowToPopulateYourDbFromScript<http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToPopulateYourDbFromScript>and
how
to access *your* Rails environment from a
script.<http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToRunBackgroundJobsInRails/versions/Environments#script>

You can have cron call script/runner to execute a one line command such as:


* * * * * /path/to/app/script/runner -e production
"User.clean_up_expired()"

</snip>
I have had difficulty finding documentation on how to use script/runner. I
am also a newbie to cron jobs.

My goal is to run a method in controller/products called
"updatePrices" 4
times a day using a cron job. Can someone provide sample code to do that.

I will post any solution on the above wiki page.

Thanks very much,

Steve


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Ezra Zygmuntowicz

2005-Dec-12 00:44 UTC

head link

Re: Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?

On Dec 11, 2005, at 8:40 AM, Steve Odom wrote:
> I want to execute a method in a controller at scheduled intervals  
> throughout the day. Can others provide examples of how they do this?
>
> The excerpt below from the wiki page " http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/ 
> rails/pages/HowToRunBackgroundJobsInRails/versions/1" is basically  
> what I want to do, but I can''t find enough other information to  
> fill in the gaps:
>
> <snip>
> Use cron or the like to run ruby code (a helper to your app).
>
> You could have a cron job launch your "escalate_bugs" script.
>
> For info regarding accessing your data from a ruby script see  
> HowToPopulateYourDbFromScript and how to access your Rails  
> environment from a script.
>
> You can have cron call script/runner to execute a one line command  
> such as:
>
>
> * * * * * /path/to/app/script/runner -e production  
> "User.clean_up_expired()"
> </snip>
> I have had difficulty finding documentation on how to use script/ 
> runner. I am also a newbie to cron jobs.
>
> My goal is to run a method in controller/products called  
> "updatePrices" 4 times a day using a cron job. Can someone
provide
> sample code to do that.
>
> I will post any solution on the above wiki page.
>
> Thanks very much,
>
> Steve
Hey Steve-

	Ok lets get this running for you. So 4 times a day is every 6 hours.  
We will make your job run at 2 minutes after the hour every six  
hours. This way we wont conflict with other scheduled hourly tasks.  
So our cron entry will look like this:

02 6 * * *  /path/to/app/script/runner -e production  
"Product.update_prices"

	I already know you are running debian so you will want to put this  
line in /etc/cron/daily . But you don''t usually do this directly. On  
debian you run this command:

crontab -e

Then paste in
02 4 * * *  /path/to/app/script/runner -e production "Product.  
update_prices"
then save and exit the editor

	Change production to development if you need to. And you will want  
to make the update_prices method in your Product Model instead of  
your controller. Usually jobs like this will interact with your data  
model and not need to use your controller. So you need to define a  
class method in your Product model like this:

Product < AR::Base

   def self. update_prices
       # update prices and do whatever else is needed
   end

end

	Hopefully that should get you going.

Cheers-

-Ezra Zygmuntowicz
WebMaster
Yakima Herald-Republic Newspaper
ezra-gdxLOakOTQ9oetBuM9ipNAC/G2K4zDHf@public.gmane.org
509-577-7732



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Lee Pope

2005-Dec-12 00:48 UTC

head link

Re: Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?

Not knowing much about how your app is organized, i would suggest that what
you describe would make more sense on the Product model. You could still
have a method on the Products controller that would delegate to that method,
if you needed a way to fire it from your web interface. You could then run

<pre><code>
    ./script/runner ''Product.UpdatePrices()''
</code></pre>

as a cron job.

If you need help setting up the cron job, please add some information about
your server -- what OS are you running, is it hosted, do you have shell
access?

Lee

On 12/11/05, Steve Odom
<steve.odom-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:>
> I want to execute a method in a controller at scheduled intervals
> throughout the day. Can others provide examples of how they do this?
>
> The excerpt below from the wiki page
"http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToRunBackgroundJobsInRails/versions/1"
> is basically what I want to do, but I can''t find enough other
information to
> fill in the gaps:
>
> <snip>
> Use cron or the like to run ruby code (a helper to your app).
>
> You could have a cron job launch your "escalate_bugs" script.
>
> For info regarding accessing your data from a ruby script see
>
HowToPopulateYourDbFromScript<http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToPopulateYourDbFromScript>and
how
> to access *your* Rails environment from a
script.<http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToRunBackgroundJobsInRails/versions/Environments#script>
>
> You can have cron call script/runner to execute a one line command such
> as:
>
>
> * * * * * /path/to/app/script/runner -e production
"User.clean_up_expired()"
>
> </snip>
> I have had difficulty finding documentation on how to use script/runner. I
> am also a newbie to cron jobs.
>
> My goal is to run a method in controller/products called
"updatePrices" 4
> times a day using a cron job. Can someone provide sample code to do that.
>
> I will post any solution on the above wiki page.
>
> Thanks very much,
>
> Steve
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
>
>

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Ray Baxter

2005-Dec-12 02:30 UTC

head link

Re: Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?

Ezra Zygmuntowicz wrote:
> Ok lets get this running for you. So 4 times a day is every 6 hours. We 
> will make your job run at 2 minutes after the hour every six hours. This 
> way we wont conflict with other scheduled hourly tasks. So our cron 
> entry will look like this:
> 
> 02 6 * * *  /path/to/app/script/runner -e production 
> "Product.update_prices"|
This will run the job at 6:02. To run every 6 hours you need:

02 */6 * * *  /path/to/app/script/runner -e production 
"Product.update_prices"

or

02 0,6,12,18 * * *  /path/to/app/script/runner -e production 
"Product.update_prices"

either of which will run the job at 0:02, 6:02, 12:02, and 18:02. Both 
should be on one line.
> crontab -e 
> Then paste in 
> 02 4 * * *  /path/to/app/script/runner -e production 
> "Product.update_prices"
This runs once at 4:02. Change as above.


-- 

Ray

Ezra Zygmuntowicz

2005-Dec-12 05:09 UTC

head link

Re: Re: Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?

On Dec 11, 2005, at 6:30 PM, Ray Baxter wrote:
> Ezra Zygmuntowicz wrote:
>
>> Ok lets get this running for you. So 4 times a day is every 6  
>> hours. We will make your job run at 2 minutes after the hour every  
>> six hours. This way we wont conflict with other scheduled hourly  
>> tasks. So our cron entry will look like this:
>> 02 6 * * *  /path/to/app/script/runner -e production  
>> "Product.update_prices"|
>
> This will run the job at 6:02. To run every 6 hours you need:
>
> 02 */6 * * *  /path/to/app/script/runner -e production  
> "Product.update_prices"
>
> or
>
> 02 0,6,12,18 * * *  /path/to/app/script/runner -e production  
> "Product.update_prices"
>
> either of which will run the job at 0:02, 6:02, 12:02, and 18:02.  
> Both should be on one line.
>
>> crontab -e
>
>> Then paste in 02 4 * * *  /path/to/app/script/runner -e production  
>> "Product.update_prices"
>
> This runs once at 4:02. Change as above.
>
>
> -- 
>
> Ray
Ahh my bad. Thanks Ray.

-Ezra Zygmuntowicz
WebMaster
Yakima Herald-Republic Newspaper
ezra-gdxLOakOTQ9oetBuM9ipNAC/G2K4zDHf@public.gmane.org
509-577-7732

Steve Odom

2005-Dec-12 17:15 UTC

head link

Re: Re: Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?

Thanks for all the help guys.

I cheated a bit and used my webmin cron job interface to set it up. I did
use crontab -e to check it and it seems to be input correctly:
4 0,4,8,12,16,20 * * * /home/steve/myappname/script/runner -e development "
Product.update_all"

crontab actually seems pretty easy to easy. Ezra is going to make me a
bash/command line guy yet ; )

If I test it and run it right now I get the following error:

/home/steve/myappname/script/runner: Permission denied

I tried running it as both root and my user name.

Any ideas?
Steve

On 12/11/05, Ezra Zygmuntowicz
<ezra-gdxLOakOTQ9oetBuM9ipNAC/G2K4zDHf@public.gmane.org>
wrote:>
>
> On Dec 11, 2005, at 6:30 PM, Ray Baxter wrote:
>
> > Ezra Zygmuntowicz wrote:
> >
> >> Ok lets get this running for you. So 4 times a day is every 6
> >> hours. We will make your job run at 2 minutes after the hour every
> >> six hours. This way we wont conflict with other scheduled hourly
> >> tasks. So our cron entry will look like this:
> >> 02 6 * * *  /path/to/app/script/runner -e production
> >> "Product.update_prices "|
> >
> > This will run the job at 6:02. To run every 6 hours you need:
> >
> > 02 */6 * * *  /path/to/app/script/runner -e production
> > "Product.update_prices"
> >
> > or
> >
> > 02 0,6,12,18 * * *  /path/to/app/script/runner -e production
> > "Product.update_prices"
> >
> > either of which will run the job at 0:02, 6:02, 12:02, and 18:02.
> > Both should be on one line.
> >
> >> crontab -e
> >
> >> Then paste in 02 4 * * *  /path/to/app/script/runner -e production
> >> "Product.update_prices"
> >
> > This runs once at 4:02. Change as above.
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > Ray
>
> Ahh my bad. Thanks Ray.
>
> -Ezra Zygmuntowicz
> WebMaster
> Yakima Herald-Republic Newspaper
> ezra-gdxLOakOTQ9oetBuM9ipNAC/G2K4zDHf@public.gmane.org
> 509-577-7732
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>

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Nathaniel S. H. Brown

2005-Dec-12 18:00 UTC

head link

RE: Re: Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?

You likely have to chmod +x script/runner

-Nb

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Nathaniel S. H. Brown                           http://nshb.net 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rails-bounces-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org 
> [mailto:rails-bounces-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org] On
Behalf Of Steve Odom
> Sent: December 12, 2005 9:15 AM
> To: rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org
> Subject: Re: [Rails] Re: Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?
> 
> Thanks for all the help guys. 
> 
> I cheated a bit and used my webmin cron job interface to set 
> it up. I did use crontab -e to check it and it seems to be 
> input correctly:
> 4 0,4,8,12,16,20 * * * /home/steve/myappname/script/runner -e 
> development "Product.update_all"
> 
> crontab actually seems pretty easy to easy. Ezra is going to 
> make me a bash/command line guy yet ; )
> 
> If I test it and run it right now I get the following error:
> 
> /home/steve/myappname/script/runner: Permission denied I 
> tried running it as both root and my user name.
> 
> Any ideas?
> Steve
> 
> 
> On 12/11/05, Ezra Zygmuntowicz <
ezra-gdxLOakOTQ9oetBuM9ipNAC/G2K4zDHf@public.gmane.org
> <mailto:ezra-gdxLOakOTQ9oetBuM9ipNAC/G2K4zDHf@public.gmane.org> >
wrote:
> 
> 
> 	On Dec 11, 2005, at 6:30 PM, Ray Baxter wrote:
> 	
> 	> Ezra Zygmuntowicz wrote:
> 	>
> 	>> Ok lets get this running for you. So 4 times a day is every 6
> 	>> hours. We will make your job run at 2 minutes after 
> the hour every 
> 	>> six hours. This way we wont conflict with other 
> scheduled hourly
> 	>> tasks. So our cron entry will look like this:
> 	>> 02 6 * * *  /path/to/app/script/runner -e production
> 	>> "Product.update_prices "|
> 	>
> 	> This will run the job at 6:02. To run every 6 hours you need:
> 	>
> 	> 02 */6 * * *  /path/to/app/script/runner -e production
> 	> "Product.update_prices"
> 	>
> 	> or
> 	>
> 	> 02 0,6,12,18 * * *  /path/to/app/script/runner -e production
> 	> "Product.update_prices"
> 	>
> 	> either of which will run the job at 0:02, 6:02, 
> 12:02, and 18:02.
> 	> Both should be on one line. 
> 	>
> 	>> crontab -e
> 	>
> 	>> Then paste in 02 4 * * *  /path/to/app/script/runner 
> -e production
> 	>> "Product.update_prices"
> 	>
> 	> This runs once at 4:02. Change as above. 
> 	>
> 	>
> 	> --
> 	>
> 	> Ray
> 	
> 	Ahh my bad. Thanks Ray.
> 	
> 	-Ezra Zygmuntowicz
> 	WebMaster
> 	Yakima Herald-Republic Newspaper
> 	ezra-gdxLOakOTQ9oetBuM9ipNAC/G2K4zDHf@public.gmane.org
<mailto:ezra-gdxLOakOTQ9oetBuM9ipNAC/G2K4zDHf@public.gmane.org>
> 	509-577-7732
> 	_______________________________________________
> 	Rails mailing list
> 	Rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org 
> 	http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails 
> <http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails> 
> 	
> 
> 
>

Steve Odom

2005-Dec-13 12:29 UTC

head link

Re: Re: Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?

> You likely have to chmod +x script/runner

Yes, that was my problem.

Now, one last problem. The suggestion was to move my method I wanted to call
with a cron job to my model:

And you will want to make theupdate_prices method in your Product
Model> instead of your controller. Usually jobs like this will interact with your
> data model

However, in that method I need to do things like perform some calculations,
determine whether I need to update the prices are not, and preprocess and
call and Amazon library. Here is an example of
submethods that are being called:

def calculate_required_update(rank)
    time = case rank
            when 0..10000 then 1.hours.from_now
            when 10001...200000 then 24.hours.from_now
            else 96.hours.from_now
           end
  end

It doesn''t seem like these kinds of things belong in my model. I
don''t think
I can call controller or helper methods from my model (or at least I''m
getting errors when I do).

So my question is: Can I have the cron job call a method in my controller?

Thanks,

Steve


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Harrison

2006-Feb-08 19:03 UTC

head link

[Rails] Re: Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?

> So my question is: Can I have the cron job call a method in my controller?Thanks,Steve

Steve - don''t know if you resolved this yet, but I am/was in the same
position
as you were.  I want to run some maintenance tasks on a daily basis.  These
tasks originally were controller actions.  There seems to be two approaches to
handling this at this:

1. Run wget http://yoursite/yourcontroller/youraction via cron

2. Convert your controller actions to model methods as described above, and use
script/runner via cron (or kyle maxwell''s rails_cron) to run them.

I''m currently testing each approach to figure out which is best.  The
wget
approach may be a little quick/dirty whereas using script/runner probably is
more legit.

When I converted the maintenance actions to model methods, I also ran into the
problem you did about not being able to access helper methods in the model, so I
converted those to new model methods as well (using self.<helper name>). 
It''s
not that big of deal, but I wonder why you can''t use helper methods in
the model?

Now I''m wondering if it matters that I have 1000 new lines of code in
my model
that used to be in controllers and view templates, i.e. if it will somehow be a
performance issue.

As for the more straightforward wget approach, I''ve heard that there
may be
timeout issues when running this for longer processes versus using
script/runner.

Any more comments would be appreciated.

Steve Odom

2006-Feb-08 19:28 UTC

head link

[Rails] Re: Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?

Hi Harrison,

I went the wget route. Putting all that stuff in my model didn''t seem
right.


I''d be curious what you ultimately decide to do.

Steve
http://www.smarkets.net

On 2/8/06, Harrison <zan99@yahoo.com> wrote:>
> > So my question is: Can I have the cron job call a method in my
> controller?
> Thanks,Steve
>
> Steve - don''t know if you resolved this yet, but I am/was in the
same
> position
> as you were.  I want to run some maintenance tasks on a daily
> basis.  These
> tasks originally were controller actions.  There seems to be two
> approaches to
> handling this at this:
>
> 1. Run wget http://yoursite/yourcontroller/youraction via cron
>
> 2. Convert your controller actions to model methods as described above,
> and use
> script/runner via cron (or kyle maxwell''s rails_cron) to run them.
>
> I''m currently testing each approach to figure out which is best. 
The wget
> approach may be a little quick/dirty whereas using script/runner probably
> is
> more legit.
>
> When I converted the maintenance actions to model methods, I also ran into
> the
> problem you did about not being able to access helper methods in the
> model, so I
> converted those to new model methods as well (using self.<helper
> name>).  It''s
> not that big of deal, but I wonder why you can''t use helper
methods in the
> model?
>
> Now I''m wondering if it matters that I have 1000 new lines of code
in my
> model
> that used to be in controllers and view templates, i.e. if it will somehow
> be a
> performance issue.
>
> As for the more straightforward wget approach, I''ve heard that
there may
> be
> timeout issues when running this for longer processes versus using
> script/runner.
>
> Any more comments would be appreciated.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
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Jason Stirman

2006-Jun-07 18:59 UTC

head link

[Rails] Re: Re: Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?

Any more insight to the best way to handle this?

wget with methods in the controller?

or

script/runner with methids in the model?

-stirman


-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Tom Mornini

2006-Jun-07 19:16 UTC

head link

[Rails] Re: Re: Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?

or rails_cron with methods in the model.

http://tinyurl.com/k994k

-- 
-- Tom Mornini

On Jun 7, 2006, at 11:59 AM, Jason Stirman wrote:
> Any more insight to the best way to handle this?
>
> wget with methods in the controller?
>
> or
>
> script/runner with methids in the model?
>
> -stirman
>
>
> -- 
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

Rails - Dec 2005 - Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?

Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?

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Re: Re: Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?

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[Rails] Re: Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?

[Rails] Re: Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?

[Rails] Re: Re: Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?

[Rails] Re: Re: Cron jobs, runner and methods. How to?