Getting Started

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Install SimpleWorker Gem

gem install simple_worker

Configure SimpleWorker

You really just need your access keys.

SimpleWorker.configure do |config|
    config.access_key = ACCESS_KEY
    config.secret_key = SECRET_KEY
end

Write a Worker

Here's an example worker that sends an email:

require 'simple_worker'

class EmailWorker < SimpleWorker::Base

    attr_accessor :to, :subject, :body

    # This is the method that will be run
    def run
        send_email(:to=>to, :subject=>subject, :body=>body)
    end

    def send_email
        # Put sending code here
    end
end

Test It Locally

Let's say someone does something in your app and you want to send an email about it.

worker = EmailWorker.new
worker.to = current_user.email
worker.subject = "Here is your mail!"
worker.body = "This is the body"
worker.run_local

Once you've got it working locally, the next step is to run it on the SimpleWorker cloud.

Queue up your Worker on the SimpleWorker Cloud

Let's say someone does something in your app and you want to send an email about it.

worker = EmailWorker.new
worker.to = current_user.email
worker.subject = "Here is your mail!"
worker.body = "This is the body"
worker.queue

This will send it off to the SimpleWorker cloud.

Setting Priority

Simply define the priority in your queue command.

worker.queue(:priority=>1)

Default priority is 0 and we currently support priority 0, 1, 2. See pricing page for more information on priorites.

Schedule your Worker

There are two scenarios here, one is the scenario where you want something to happen due to a user action in your application. This is almost the same as queuing your worker.

worker = EmailWorker.new
worker.to = current_user.email
worker.subject = "Here is your mail!"
worker.body = "This is the body"
worker.schedule(:start_at=>1.hours.since)

Check Status

If you still have access to the worker object, just call:

worker.status

If you only have the job ID, call:

SimpleWorker.service.status(job_id)

This will return a hash like:

 {"task_id"=>"ece460ce-12d8-11e0-8e15-12313b0440c6",
 "status"=>"running",
 "msg"=>nil,
 "start_time"=>"2010-12-28T23:19:36+00:00",
 "end_time"=>nil,
 "duration"=>nil,
 "progress"=>{"percent"=>25}}

Logging

In your worker, just call the log method with the string you want logged:

log "Starting to do something..."

The log will be available for viewing via the SimpleWorker UI or via log in the API:

SimpleWorker.service.log(job_id)

or if you still have a handle to your worker object:

worker.get_log

Setting Progress

This is just a way to let your users know where the job is at if required.

set_progress(:percent => 25, :message => "We are a quarter of the way there!")

You can actually put anything in this hash and it will be returned with a call to status. We recommend using the format above for consistency and to get some additional features where we look for these values.

Schedule a Recurring Job - CRON

The alternative is when you want to user it like Cron. In this case you'll probably want to write a script that will schedule, you don't want to schedule it everytime your app starts or anything so best to keep it external.

Create a file called 'schedule_email_worker.rb' and add this:

require 'simple_worker'
require_relative 'email_worker'

worker = EmailWorker.new
worker.to = current_user.email
worker.subject = "Here is your mail!"
worker.body = "This is the body"
worker.schedule(:start_at=>1.hours.since, :run_every=>3600)

Now run it and your worker will be scheduled to run every hour.

SimpleWorker on Rails

Rails 2.X:

config.gem 'simple_worker'

Rails 3.X:

gem 'simple_worker'

Now you can use your workers like they're part of your app! We recommend putting your worker classes in /app/workers path.

Configuring a Database Connection

Although you could easily do this in your worker, this makes it a bit more convenient and more importantly it will create the connection for you. If you are using Rails 3, you just need to add one line:

config.database = Rails.configuration.database_configuration[Rails.env]

For non Rails 3, you would add the following to your SimpleWorker config:

config.database = {
  :adapter => "mysql2",
  :host => "localhost",
  :database => "appdb",
  :username => "appuser",
  :password => "secret"
}

Then before you job is run, SimpleWorker will establish the ActiveRecord connection.

Including/Merging other Ruby Classes

If you are using the Rails setup above, you can probably skip this as your models will automatically be merged.

class AvgWorker < SimpleWorker::Base

    attr_accessor :aws_access_key,
                  :aws_secret_key,
                  :s3_suffix

    merge File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "..", "app", "models", "user.rb")
    merge File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "..", "app", "models", "account")

Or simpler yet, try using relative paths:

merge "../models/user"
merge "../models/account.rb"

The opposite can be done as well with "unmerge" and can be useful when using Rails to exclude classes that are automatically merged.

Merging other Workers

Merging other workers is a bit different than merging other code like above because they will be uploaded separately and treated as distinctly separate workers.

merge_worker "./other_worker.rb", "OtherWorker"

Merging Gems

This allows you to use any gem you'd like with SimpleWorker. This uses the same syntax as bundler gem files.

merge_gem "some_gem"
merge_gem "some_gem_with_version", "1.2.3"

Check here for more info on merge_gem.

Configuration Options

Global Attributes

These are attributes that can be set as part of your config block then will be set on all your worker objects automatically. This is particularly good for things like database connection info or things that you would need to use across the board.

Eg:

config.global_attributes[:db_user] = "sa"
config.global_attributes[:db_pass] = "pass"

Then in your worker, you would have the attributes defined:

attr_accessor :db_user, :db_pass