Internals / Task Scheduler (cron)

Note: You are currently reading the documentation for Bolt 3.7. Looking for the documentation for Bolt 5.2 instead?

Bolt comes with a built-in, extensible, task scheduler. This task scheduler relies on the operatings systems underlying scheduler (e.g. cron) for execution.

Currently the following jobs are run internally by Bolt's task scheduler:

• Cache clearing - A weekly job to clear Bolt's internal cache
• Log trimming - A weekly job to trim Bolt's log database

Set up¶

Under UNIX/Linux style operating systems you will need to create a crontab entry to execute Bolt's command line interface 'nut', located in Bolt's app/ directory.

The format should look something like:

# min hour day month weekday command
0   */1    *    *    *       /var/www/my_site/app/nut cron

Where you change /var/www/my_site to be the correct path to your Bolt installation.

Then in config.yml you need to set the cron_hour parameter. The parameter takes an integer between 0 and 23, representitive of the hour of the day you want the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly tasks to execute at. By default is set to 03:00 am.

cron_hour: 3

Important Information for Timed Record Publishing

If you are using the cron to publish timed records (which is highly recommended) then you need to set a flag in your config.yml or config_local.yml.

Add this block:

performance:
    timed_records:
        use_cron: true

Command Line¶

The task schedulers job intervals can be run on demand using nut from the command line, e.g. To run the hourly tasks:

./app/nut cron --run=cron.Hourly

The parameter passed to --run can be any of the following:

• cron.Hourly
• cron.Daily
• cron.Weekly
• cron.Monthly
• cron.Yearly

Extending¶

Bolt's task scheduler can be interfaced in extensions by setting a listener. To create a listener you need to something similar in your extension:

use Bolt\Extension\SimpleExtension;
use Bolt\Events\CronEvent;
use Bolt\Events\CronEvents;
use Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\EventDispatcherInterface;

class Extension extends SimpleExtension
{
    /**
     * {@inheritdoc}
     */
    protected function subscribe(EventDispatcherInterface $dispatcher)
    {
        $dispatcher->addListener(CronEvents::CRON_INTERVAL, [$this, 'myJobCallbackMethod']);
    }

    /**
     * Callback method for the custom cron job.
     *
     * @param CronEvent $event
     */
    public function myJobCallbackMethod(CronEvent $event)
    {
        // Add you logic here …

        // Return a message to the console
        $event->output->writeln("<comment>    Something happened!</comment>");
    }
}

CRON_INTERVAL should be replaced with one of the following:

• CRON_HOURLY
• CRON_DAILY
• CRON_WEEKLY
• CRON_MONTHLY
• CRON_YEARLY

This will invoke your extension class method myJobCallbackMethod at the defined interval and time.