Properties of a scheduled job in Laravel

Every entry you add is converted into an instance of Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Event and stored in an $events class property of the Scheduler, an Event object consists of the following:

• Command to run
• CRON Expression
• Timezone to be used to evaluate the time
• Operating System User the command should run as
• The list of Environments the command should run under
• Maintenance mode configuration
• Event Overlapping configuration
• Command Foreground/Background running configuration
• A list of checks to decide if the command should run or not
• Configuration on how to handle the output
• Callbacks to run after the command runs
• Callbacks to run before the command runs
• Description for the command
• A unique Mutex for the command

The command to run could be one of the following:

• A callback
• A command to run on the operating system
• An artisan command
• A job to be dispatched

Using a callback

In case of a callback, the Container::call() method is used to run the value we pass which means we can pass a callable or a string representing a method on a class:

protected function schedule(Schedule $schedule)
{
    $schedule->call(function () {
        DB::table('recent_users')->delete();
    })->daily();
}

Or:

protected function schedule(Schedule $schedule)
{
    $schedule->call('MetricsRepository@cleanRecentUsers')->daily();
}

Passing a command for the operating system

If you would like to pass a command for the operating system to run you can use exec():

$schedule->exec('php /home/sendmail.php --user=10 --attachInvoice')->monthly();

You can also pass the parameters as an array:

$schedule->exec('php /home/sendmail.php', [
    '--user=10',
    '--subject' => 'Reminder',
    '--attachInvoice'
])->monthly();

Passing an artisan command

$schedule->command('mail:send --user=10')->monthly();

You can also pass the class name:

$schedule->command('App\Console\Commands\EmailCommand', ['user' => 10])->monthly();

The values you pass are converted under the hood to an actual shell command and passed to exec() to run it on the operating system.

Dispatching a Job

You may dispatch a job to queue using the Job class name or an actual object:

$schedule->job('App\Jobs\SendOffer')->monthly();

$schedule->job(new SendOffer(10))->monthly();

Under the hood Laravel will create a callback that calls the dispatch() helper method to dispatch your command.

So the two actual methods of creating an event here is by calling exec() or call(), the first one submits an instance of Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Event and the latter submits Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\CallbackEvent which has some special handling.

Building the cron expression

Using the timing method of the Scheduled Event, laravel builds a CRON expression for that event under the hood, by default the expression is set to run the command every minute:

* * * * * *

But when you call hourly() for example the expression will be updated to:

0 * * * * *

If you call dailyAt('13:30') for example the expression will be updated to:

30 13 * * * *

If you call twiceDaily(5, 14) for example the expression will be updated to:

0 5,14 * * * *

A very smart abstraction layer that saves you tons of research to find the right cron expression, however you can pass your own expression if you want as well:

$schedule->command('mail:send')->cron('0 * * * * *');

How about timezones?

If you want the CRON expression to be evaluated with respect to a specific timezone you can do that using:

->timezone('Europe/London')

Under the hood Laravel checks the timezone value you set and update the Carbon date instance to reflect that.

So laravel checks if the command is due using the CRON expression?

Exactly, Laravel uses the mtdowling/cron-expression library to determine if the command is due based on the current system time (with respect to the timezone we set).

Adding Constraints on running the command

Duration constraints

For example if you want the command to run daily but only between two specific dates:

->between('2017-05-27', '2017-06-26')->daily();

And if you want to prevent it from running during a specific period:

->unlessBetween('2017-05-27', '2017-06-26')->daily();

Environment constraints

You can use the environments() method to pass the list of environments the command is allowed to run under:

->environments('staging', 'production');

Maintenance Mode

By default scheduled commands won't run when the application is in maintenance mode, however you can change that by using:

->evenInMaintenanceMode()

OS User

You can set the Operating System user that'll run the command using:

->user('forge')

Under the hood Laravel will use sudo -u forge to set the user on the operating system.

Custom Constraints

You can define your own custom constraint using the when() and skip() methods:

// Runs the command only when the user count is greater than 1000
->when(function(){
    return User::count() > 1000;
});

// Runs the command unless the user count is greater than 1000
->skip(function(){
    return User::count() > 1000;
});

Before and After callbacks

Using the before() and then() methods you can register callbacks that'll run before or after the command finishes execution:

->before(function(){
    Mail::to('[e-mail]', new CommandStarted());
})
->then(function(){
    Mail::to('[e-mail]', new CommandFinished());
});

You can also ping URLs or webhooks using the pingBefore() and thenPing() methods:

->ping('https://my-webhook.com/start')->thenPing('https://my-webhook.com/finish')

Using these commands laravel registers a before/after callbacks under the hood and uses Guzzle to send a GET HTTP request:

return $this->before(function () use ($url) {
    (new HttpClient)->get($url);
});