Automation/Scheduler for tasks needed

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How important is this enhancement to you?

It's a critical enhancement that I must have.
14
58%
It's an important enhancement but others are more critical.
7
29%
I'd like to have it but it's not that important.
3
13%
I'd never use this feature.
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 24

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AbleMods
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Automation/Scheduler for tasks needed

Post by AbleMods » Sat Oct 11, 2008 6:09 pm

Several tasks could be automated that could make everyone's job easier. We need a "scheduled task queue" on the admin side.

Rebuilding Sitemap.xml, generating feed files, purging the Page View history etc. Plus I have many functions I do now that could work on a schedule. Using Windows Scheduler bites.

I envision something that allows you to specify the page name to execute, and parameters as a separate choice along with a handy repeat-every scheduling component. Data classes would be nice too so programmers like me could create the scheduled task for the customer.
Joe Payne
AbleCommerce Custom Programming and Modules http://www.AbleMods.com/
AbleCommerce Hosting http://www.AbleModsHosting.com/
Precise Fishing and Hunting Time Tables http://www.Solunar.com

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jmestep
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Re: Automation/Scheduler for tasks needed

Post by jmestep » Sun Oct 12, 2008 9:35 am

Yes, yes, yes
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keats76
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Re: Automation/Scheduler for tasks needed

Post by keats76 » Fri Oct 31, 2008 9:01 am

Count me in ... I have a lot of tasks that I'd like to tie into the scheduler.

gunter
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Re: Automation/Scheduler for tasks needed

Post by gunter » Sun Dec 14, 2008 2:42 am

sounds like a great idea

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AbleMods
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Re: Automation/Scheduler for tasks needed

Post by AbleMods » Sun Dec 14, 2008 2:54 am

I went ahead and wrote my own. I'm currently live-testing it on my Solunar.com site.

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=9241

It'll be up for sale in another week or two on my http://www.AbleMods.com site.
Joe Payne
AbleCommerce Custom Programming and Modules http://www.AbleMods.com/
AbleCommerce Hosting http://www.AbleModsHosting.com/
Precise Fishing and Hunting Time Tables http://www.Solunar.com

Thessyn
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Re: Automation/Scheduler for tasks needed

Post by Thessyn » Wed Mar 18, 2009 8:39 am

I move that this feature should be considered along with the "Data Port command line" feature request. One way or another, it would be great to be able to do things on a schedule. If more tasks were integrated into Dataport, we could just run that using the Windows Scheduler. If data porting capabilities were somehow bundled into a webpage, we could use this feature (suggested above).

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AbleMods
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Re: Automation/Scheduler for tasks needed

Post by AbleMods » Wed Mar 18, 2009 8:52 am

I went ahead and wrote my own.

It works well, to a point. I have about 5 different processes now fully automated.

The wall I'm hitting is troubleshooting it. Since everything is server-side, even the slightest hiccup causes the scheduler process to crash out. Then it becomes a big headache troubleshooting the how/why of the crash.
Joe Payne
AbleCommerce Custom Programming and Modules http://www.AbleMods.com/
AbleCommerce Hosting http://www.AbleModsHosting.com/
Precise Fishing and Hunting Time Tables http://www.Solunar.com

gunter
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Re: Automation/Scheduler for tasks needed

Post by gunter » Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:21 pm

Event Engine Access and Scheduling

Hi Able Dev Team,

Need Able Event Engine Access

We would very much like to get access to the Event engine in Able. We are trying to build a Scheduling system and this is key to properly integrating it and making it truly useful.
At present we are just using it by customizing the OnePageCheckout.ascx and manually calling our code at that point but this has serious limitations (different payment states etc)
If you were able to give us some way to run our own code for each store event I can see that would be very useful in all sorts of circumstances not just for our scheduler.
Something as simple as a page that has empty methods that are fired by corresponding Store Events from your core Commerce Builder DLL would do the trick

New Scheduling System – under development
We were very excited when we saw Joe Payne’s initial mockups for his Scheduling system – unfortunately it seems to have stalled - so we have written our own.

It will be a bit a little more elaborate than Joe’s and we have designed it to be relatively extensible. We hope to supply it with a basic API so that developers can write their own type of Jobs and have them triggered and managed by our Job Manager system.

A fairly crucial part of this is tying in with the Able store events – we want to be able to let users schedule all sorts of jobs based on custom code but also based on store events.

Much in the same way that Email Templates can be associated with Store Events we want to be able to associate custom Jobs.

Flexible Job Creation Process
Our idea is that a custom Job can consist of multiple steps or a single step that occurs immediately on event or sometime in the future. They can also be manually triggered at anytime if the type of Job is appropriate to do so.

The sorts of jobs we have in mind
  • follow up emails – get feedback, send promotional coupons for discounts, use for membership programs, individualized newsletters etc.
    digital product Activation/Deactivation
    system maintenance type jobs
    re-subscription reminders
    scheduled store deactivation/activation
    Scheduled newsletter sending
    And anything else that might be useful to schedule ahead of time, or delay after an event occurs
Feedback Please

If anyone has any ideas that would like to see incorporated into a Scheduler please mention them as we would like to make it as flexible as possible.

We intend to supply it initially with at least 2 Job DLLs - one for sending an email template and another for Activating/Deactivating Digital Goods. As requested we hope to supply more Job DLLs to cater for more functionality. We will also supply details so other developers can create their own Job DLLs.

Thanks

keats76
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Re: Automation/Scheduler for tasks needed

Post by keats76 » Fri Jan 08, 2010 9:29 am

gunter
Any update on the scheduler front? I'm interested ... !

SecretSpin
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Re: Automation/Scheduler for tasks needed

Post by SecretSpin » Thu Jan 14, 2010 1:20 pm

I'd love to hear of any update for this. Big lacking part of Able.

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Re: Automation/Scheduler for tasks needed

Post by AbleMods » Thu Jan 14, 2010 2:17 pm

My scheduling system has worked well for many months now, however it is entirely custom and not something I've been comfortable enough to sell to others.

The difficulty comes in troubleshooting it. Everything is written to be server-side programming. When something doesn't go as expected, the debug process is incredibly tedious and time-consuming. The whole concept is great, but production web-server environments just aren't mature enough from a programming perspective to handle automated tasks with ease and simplicity.
Joe Payne
AbleCommerce Custom Programming and Modules http://www.AbleMods.com/
AbleCommerce Hosting http://www.AbleModsHosting.com/
Precise Fishing and Hunting Time Tables http://www.Solunar.com

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