One major drawback you should solve so that it can really replace Quartz

[PhilApps]

Hi,
I just discovered TicketQ a few time ago and I really like how simple it is to setup scheduled tasks. So I was studying the topic to see if I can replace quartz with TickerQ, but I see two major drawbacks that refrain me to make this replacement.
First, we are constrained to use AspNetCore to use TickerQ, it cannot be used on a mere host from "Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting" since we have to call a "UseTickerQ" on a "IApplicationBuilder". Quartz can be used on a mere host without aspnetCore.
And second thing that is really awkward, quartz cron expressions are accurate to the second whereas TickerQ cron expressions cannot be configured to make it run on precise seconds. This is important in the place I'm currently working.

However TickerQ is really promising and if you solve these issues we could use TickerQ instead of Quartz because TickerQ is really more easilly setable than Quartz.

[arcenox]

Hi @PhilApps, TickerQ can be used on console apps as well using IHost, The feature with supporting second part will become avaliable soon.

[PhilApps]

Hi and thank you for your reply.
So, can you show in the documentation how to use TickerQ using only IHost please ? Your documentation says that we have to use "UseTickerQ" on a "IApplicationBuilder" object which is in an AspNetCore library and when I did not use "UseTickerQ" I got a NullReferenceException...
Thank you and have a nice day.

[PhilApps]

To be more precise, here's what I am trying to do :

• I create a new project with the model as "Service worker". Just referencing "Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting" and all the related dependencies, there's no ASP.Net core at all, so no "IApplicationBuilder".
• I try to use the "TickerFunction" but no triggering.
• When I retrieve an instance of "ITickerHost" in a hosted service, the "Start" method throws a NullReferenceException.

I really have to add asp.net core dependencies to make it work, I suppose the "UseTickerQ" initialize something that enables the jobs.

[STotev]

What I managed to do (haven't tested it a lot).

1. Created a Service Worker project
2. Added a separate DbContext (mainly because my main one has stuff that shouldn't be used) that still connects to the same connection string
3. And then

var builder = Host.CreateApplicationBuilder(args);

builder.Services.AddDbContext<TickerQDbContext>(o =>
{
    o.UseNpgsql(builder.Configuration.GetConnectionString("TickerQDbContext"));
});

builder.Services.AddTickerQ(options =>
{
    options.AddOperationalStore<TickerQDbContext>(o =>
    {
        o.UseModelCustomizerForMigrations();
    });
});

var host = builder.Build();

host.UseTickerQ(qStartMode: TickerQStartMode.Immediate);

host.Run();

This runs as normal. I see queries are trying to look for jobs to run.

My main problem is the Dashboard, though. In order to run it I will have to make the Service Worker another Web API project. And the main reason is because the TickerQController is interfering with my main project. The endpoints appear in Swagger, and my specific authorization filters get picked up causing 403 Forbidden errors.

And if I tried to setup just the dashboard on my main Api project, that also won't work. I need to again setup AddTickerQ() and then use UseTickerQ() which starts a node and the dashboard and I cannot execute any jobs.

I either am doing something wrong or things will need a little bit decoupling.

I like TickerQ but for us to use it, it will require a bit more maturity and unfortunately we'll have to stick to Hangfire for now.

[PhilApps]

Oh, thank you STolev, I did not see that there was also a "UserTickerQ" extension method on a "IHost" objet. This extension method was not mentionned in the documentation.

[PhilApps]

Actually, this is really fantastic!
I just made a test project and I experienced that I could just make a configuration file using options to initialize all of my jobs in a factory fashion, using CronTickers and TimerTickers in the appsettings.json. Really so simple to setup the jobs.

Now, just add the cron expressions that are accurate to seconds and I'll replace all my quartz projects with tickerQ right away! :)

Really good job! 👍

[sagar2503]

Hi

I am reading messages posted on rabbitMQ using masstransit and creating queue using TickerHelper.CreateTickerRequest.
We have to provide function name while creating tickerq request, if tickerq does not find the function in same project it does not create a record in DB.

I want to keep the code which creates a TickerQ queue "TickerHelper.CreateTickerRequest"
And function which gets executed when queue is created in DIFFERENT PROJECTS.

Therefore the code "TickerHelper.CreateTickerRequest" will be inside API and TickerQ Function will be in CONSOLE app both running inside separate servers.

is that possible ?

Thanks a lot
Sagar

[PhilApps]

Hello,
It looks like since version 8 the "UseTickerQ" has been removed from extensions for IHost so now is there another way to use tickerQ on console apps ?

[SYKRyan]

It looks like this was addressed in a merged PR. #480

[PhilApps]

It looks like this was addressed in a merged PR. #480

In the meantime the UseTickerQ is not available for console mode but yes, this feature for making it independant of asp net core is great, I'm looking forward to using it. :)

[SYKRyan]

Have you looked into the current work around example in the issue related to the PR (#475)? Does this not work when using the generic Hosting builder in a console app?

// Cannot use app.UseTickerQ() - IApplicationBuilder doesn't exist in MAUI
var app = builder.Build(); 

// Manual initialization instead:
MeasurementEngine.MeasurementEngineModule.InitializeModuleAsync(app.Services).Wait(); 
TickerFunctionProvider.Build();