Rails - Jun 2006 - Rails cronjob?

I want to be able to write a script in Ruby which regularly consumes an 
XML feed from a fixed source, re-formats it, produces a large file for 
web delivery, and updates a database with the contained information.

It''s simple - just running a script from a cron job, and some basic
data
manipulation... But I''d prefer to use the Rails database mapping 
constructs than roll my own.

What steps do I need to take to include ActiveRecord and my database 
models in a Ruby script?

Ben

One very easy way is write your script as a rake task and put it in
lib/tasks/application.rake

task :update_the_universe => :environment do
  # Put anything in here
end

Then just add a cronjob that executes ''RAILS_ENV=production rake
update_the_universe''.

Alternatively, just create a file that requires config/boot (I think
that''s right ... ). Something like:

#!/usr/bin/ruby1.8
require ''config/boot''
# Rest of code here

I''ve used the first solution, but not the second.

-Jonathan.

On 6/28/06, DJ Tequila <mail@djtequila.com> wrote:
> I want to be able to write a script in Ruby which regularly consumes an
> XML feed from a fixed source, re-formats it, produces a large file for
> web delivery, and updates a database with the contained information.
>
> It''s simple - just running a script from a cron job, and some
basic data
> manipulation... But I''d prefer to use the Rails database mapping
> constructs than roll my own.
>
> What steps do I need to take to include ActiveRecord and my database
> models in a Ruby script?
>
> Ben
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>

To include railsy things you can always just require the rails gem.
But if you already have something on your RoR website that does this
you can just use script/runner.

http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/RunnerScript
http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToRunBackgroundJobsInRails

On 6/27/06, DJ Tequila <mail@djtequila.com> wrote:
> I want to be able to write a script in Ruby which regularly consumes an
> XML feed from a fixed source, re-formats it, produces a large file for
> web delivery, and updates a database with the contained information.
>
> It''s simple - just running a script from a cron job, and some
basic data
> manipulation... But I''d prefer to use the Rails database mapping
> constructs than roll my own.
>
> What steps do I need to take to include ActiveRecord and my database
> models in a Ruby script?
>
> Ben
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>

-- 
--------------
Jon Gretar Borgthorsson
http://www.jongretar.net/

I wrote up a brief entry on this on my blog that you may find useful:

http://atomgiant.com/articles/2006/04/18/batch-processing-with-rails

Tom

On 6/27/06, Jonathan Viney <jonathan.viney@gmail.com>
wrote:
> One very easy way is write your script as a rake task and put it in
> lib/tasks/application.rake
>
> task :update_the_universe => :environment do
>   # Put anything in here
> end
>
> Then just add a cronjob that executes ''RAILS_ENV=production rake
> update_the_universe''.
>
> Alternatively, just create a file that requires config/boot (I think
> that''s right ... ). Something like:
>
> #!/usr/bin/ruby1.8
> require ''config/boot''
> # Rest of code here
>
> I''ve used the first solution, but not the second.
>
> -Jonathan.
>
> On 6/28/06, DJ Tequila <mail@djtequila.com> wrote:
> > I want to be able to write a script in Ruby which regularly consumes
an
> > XML feed from a fixed source, re-formats it, produces a large file for
> > web delivery, and updates a database with the contained information.
> >
> > It''s simple - just running a script from a cron job, and some
basic data
> > manipulation... But I''d prefer to use the Rails database
mapping
> > constructs than roll my own.
> >
> > What steps do I need to take to include ActiveRecord and my database
> > models in a Ruby script?
> >
> > Ben
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rails mailing list
> > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>

-- 
Tom Davies

http://atomgiant.com
http://gifthat.com

Write a class method on a new class and put it in lib/

lib/maintenance.rb:

class Maintenance
   def self.run
     # Do your rails stuff here, using and relying
     # upon the Rails environment.
   end
end

then, in your crontab, call this:

/path/to/app/script/runner -e production ''Maintenance.run''

You may also want to check out the very cool rails_cron
plugin:

www.kylemaxwell.com

He has a temporaryarily down page up right now, but I''m
guessing he''ll have that fixed right away.

--  
-- Tom Mornini

On Jun 27, 2006, at 5:21 AM, DJ Tequila wrote:
> I want to be able to write a script in Ruby which regularly  
> consumes an XML feed from a fixed source, re-formats it, produces a  
> large file for web delivery, and updates a database with the  
> contained information.
>
> It''s simple - just running a script from a cron job, and some
basic
> data manipulation... But I''d prefer to use the Rails database  
> mapping constructs than roll my own.
>
> What steps do I need to take to include ActiveRecord and my  
> database models in a Ruby script?
>
> Ben
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

On 6/27/06, DJ Tequila <mail@djtequila.com> wrote:
> I want to be able to write a script in Ruby which regularly consumes an
> XML feed from a fixed source, re-formats it, produces a large file for
> web delivery, and updates a database with the contained information.
>
> It''s simple - just running a script from a cron job, and some
basic data
> manipulation... But I''d prefer to use the Rails database mapping
> constructs than roll my own.
>
> What steps do I need to take to include ActiveRecord and my database
> models in a Ruby script?
Checkout http://svn.kylemaxwell.com/rails_cron/trunk/README.

Joe