NAME

TheSchwartz - reliable job queue

SYNOPSIS

    # MyApp.pm
    package MyApp;

    sub work_asynchronously {
        my %args = @_;

        my $client = TheSchwartz->new( databases => $DATABASE_INFO );
        $client->insert('MyWorker', \%args);
    }


    # myworker.pl
    package MyWorker;
    use base qw( TheSchwartz::Worker );

    sub work {
        my $class = shift;
        my TheSchwartz::Job $job = shift;
        
        print "Workin' hard or hardly workin'? Hyuk!!\n";

        $job->completed();
    }

    package main;
    
    my $client = TheSchwartz->new( databases => $DATABASE_INFO );
    $client->can_do('MyWorker');
    $client->work();

DESCRIPTION

TheSchwartz is a reliable job queue system. Your application can put jobs into the system, and your worker processes can pull jobs from the queue atomically to perform. Failed jobs can be left in the queue to retry later.

Abilities specify what jobs a worker process can perform. Abilities are the names of TheSchwartz::Worker subclasses, as in the synopsis: the MyWorker class name is used to specify that the worker script can perform the job. When using the TheSchwartz client's work functions, the class-ability duality is used to automatically dispatch to the proper class to do the actual work.

TheSchwartz clients will also prefer to do jobs for unused abilities before reusing a particular ability, to avoid exhausting the supply of one kind of job while jobs of other types stack up.

Some jobs with high setup times can be performed more efficiently if a group of related jobs are performed together. TheSchwartz offers a facility to coalesce jobs into groups, which a properly constructed worker can find and perform at once. For example, if your worker were delivering email, you might store the domain name from the recipient's address as the coalescing value. The worker that grabs that job could then batch deliver all the mail for that domain once it connects to that domain's mail server.

USAGE

TheSchwartz->new( %args )

Optional members of %args are:

• databases

  An arrayref of database information. TheSchwartz workers can use multiple databases, such that if any of them are unavailable, the worker will search for appropriate jobs in the other databases automatically.

  Each member of the databases value should be a hashref containing:

  • dsn

    The database DSN for this database.

  • user

    The username to use when connecting to this database.

  • pass

    The password to use when connecting to this database.

• verbose

  A value indicating whether to log debug messages. If verbose is a coderef, it is called to log debug messages. If verbose is not a coderef but is some other true value, debug messages will be sent to STDERR. Otherwise, debug messages will not be logged.

• driver_cache_expiration

  Optional value to control how long database connections are cached for in seconds. By default, connections are not cached. To re-use the same database connection for five minutes, pass driver_cache_expiration => 300 to the constructor. Improves job throughput in cases where the work to process a job is small compared to the database connection set-up and tear-down time.

• retry_seconds

  The number of seconds after which to try reconnecting to apparently dead databases. If not given, TheSchwartz will retry connecting to databases after 30 seconds.

$client->list_jobs( %args )

Returns a list of TheSchwartz::Job objects matching the given arguments. The required members of %args are:

• funcname

  the name of the function or a reference to an array of functions

• run_after

  the value you want to check <= against on the run_after column

• grabbed_until

  the value you want to check <= against on the grabbed_until column

• coalesce_op

  defaults to '=', set it to whatever you want to compare the coalesce field too if you want to search, you can use 'LIKE'

• coalesce

  coalesce value to search for, if you set op to 'LIKE' you can use '%' here, do remember that '%' searches anchored at the beginning of the string are much faster since it is can do a btree index lookup

• want_handle

  if you want all your jobs to be set up using a handle. defaults to true. this option might be removed, as you should always have this on a Job object.

It is important to remember that this function doesnt lock anything, it just returns as many jobs as there is up to amount of databases * FIND_JOB_BATCH_SIZE

$client->lookup_job( $handle_id )

Returns a TheSchwartz::Job corresponding to the given handle ID.

$client->set_verbose( $verbose )

Sets the current logging function to $verbose if it's a coderef. If not a coderef, enables debug logging to STDERR if $verbose is true; otherwise, disables logging.

POSTING JOBS

The methods of TheSchwartz clients used by applications posting jobs to the queue are:

$client->insert( $job )

Adds the given TheSchwartz::Job to one of the client's job databases.

$client->insert( $funcname, $arg )

Adds a new job with funcname $funcname and arguments $arg to the queue.

$client->insert_jobs( @jobs )

Adds the given TheSchwartz::Job objects to one of the client's job databases. All the given jobs are recorded in one job database.

WORKING

The methods of TheSchwartz clients for use in worker processes are:

$client->can_do( $ability )

Adds $ability to the list of abilities $client is capable of performing. Subsequent calls to that client's work methods will find jobs requiring the given ability.

$client->work_once()

Find and perform one job $client can do.

$client->work_until_done()

Find and perform jobs $client can do until no more such jobs are found in any of the client's job databases.

$client->work( [$delay] )

Find and perform any jobs $client can do, forever. When no job is available, the working process will sleep for $delay seconds (or 5, if not specified) before looking again.

$client->find_job_for_workers( [$abilities] )

Returns a TheSchwartz::Job for a random job that the client can do. If specified, the job returned matches one of the abilities in the arrayref $abilities, rather than $client's abilities.

$client->find_job_with_coalescing_value( $ability, $coval )

Returns a TheSchwartz::Job for a random job for a worker capable of $ability and with a coalescing value of $coval.

$client->find_job_with_coalescing_prefix( $ability, $coval )

Returns a TheSchwartz::Job for a random job for a worker capable of $ability and with a coalescing value beginning with $coval.

Note the TheSchwartz implementation of this function uses a LIKE query to find matching jobs, with all the attendant performance implications for your job databases.

COPYRIGHT, LICENSE & WARRANTY

This software is Copyright 2007, Six Apart Ltd, cpan@sixapart.com. All rights reserved.

TheSchwartz is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

TheScwhartz comes with no warranty of any kind.

cpanm TheSchwartz

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install TheSchwartz