Hi Sitecore Enthusiast,
Recently one of our project require schedule agent to generate order status report for past 1,3,5,7 days (can add more in feature).As part our solution design we (I and Sam, another developer) start discussing solution so that we both remain on same page.
Sam: We need to create four schedule agents in config file with parameter Day: 1,3,5,7 and so on.
I: But they might have more agents in future with more number of days or they might want to disable some.
Sam: We will disable them from config file
I: Ya, but it will restart IIS (which I always try to avoid if solution can be achieve other way)
Sam: Also this agent should run between given time
I: What if they ask us to change time period which is quite often
Sam: But config is only way where you can specify parameters and they get mapped to property automatically or we need to extend schedule task template by adding custom properties  and can be read out from code. However it may possible other Schedule task don’t want these fields (functionality specific)?
I: Let’s add single parameter field in task template and bind parameter to properties dynamically.
Sam: That would be cool! How?
I: Here is code and solution which we will use now on words for such requirement.
Sam: Wait wait but what about schedule job must run in given time frame and must execute once per day only ?
I: Brain has already provide solution on his blog which is really good solution and fulfills our requirement, just find code below which will include all requirement and you just have to write business logic.
using Sitecore;
using Sitecore.ContentSearch.Linq.Utilities;
using Sitecore.Diagnostics;
using Sitecore.Tasks;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
namespace Client.Core.Agents
{
public class ReportAgent
{
public ReportAgent() { }
#region Common Property
public string StartTime { get; set; }
public string EndTime { get; set; }
#endregion
#region Task Specific Property
public string Days { get; set; }
#endregion
private DateTime startDateTime;
private DateTime endDateTime;
public void Run(Sitecore.Data.Items.Item[] items, Sitecore.Tasks.CommandItem command, Sitecore.Tasks.ScheduleItem schedule)
{
try
{
if (schedule != null)
{
string parameters = schedule["parameters"];
if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(parameters))
{
Sitecore.Reflection.ReflectionUtil.SetProperties(this, parameters, false);
}
}
startDateTime = DateTime.Now;
endDateTime = DateTime.Now;
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(StartTime) && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(EndTime))
{
DateTime.TryParse(StartTime, out startDateTime);
DateTime.TryParse(EndTime, out endDateTime);
if (!IsDue(schedule))
return;
}
Execute();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Log.Error("ReportAgent: Error occurred", ex, this);
}
}
private bool IsDue(ScheduleItem scheduleItem)
{
return (CheckTime(DateTime.Now, startDateTime, endDateTime) && !CheckTime(scheduleItem.LastRun, startDateTime, endDateTime));
}
private bool CheckTime(DateTime time, DateTime after, DateTime before)
{
return ((time >= after) && (time <= before));
}
public void Execute()
{
try
{
//Business logic.
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Log.Error("ReportAgent: Error occurred", ex, this);
}
}
}
}
Summary :
I believe both approaches has pros and cons, but if we get more flexibility by doing small change then I always prefer to do trade off.
From Sitecore:
+ Very flexible easy to manage like configure, enable/disable
+ Can specify day(s) of week in frequency
+ No IIS restart on change, just save and publish
– Parameter not supported (by default, but can be extended)
From Config:
+ Support parameter
+ Does not depend on Sitecore task agent to get executed
– Requires IIS restarts to change.
– Not able specify day(s) of week in frequency
I hope you like our conversation and might help you understand real essence of solution. If you have any feedback I would like to hear.
-Mrunal
