Abstract
Apache Sling and AEM provide 2 different approaches to start processes at a given time or in a given interval. It is not always trivial to make the right decision between these two, and I have seen a few cases of misuse already. Let’s dive into this topic and I will outline in what situation to use the Scheduler and when to use Scheduled Jobs.
Execute code exactly once at a given time
That’s a case for the scheduled job. Even if the job is failing because the executing SLING instance goes down, it will be re-scheduled and tried again.
Here the exactly once semantics means that this is a single job with a global scope. Missing it is not an option. It might be delayed if the triggering date is missed or the execution is aborted, but it will be executed as soon as possible after the scheduled time has passed.
Periodic jobs which effect just a single AEM instance
Use the scheduler whenever you execute periodic/incremental jobs like cleanups, data imports etc. It’s not a problem if you miss their execution on time, but you just make sure that you execute at the next time (or trigger it during startup if necessary).
Another note to choose the right approach: You should not need to create a scheduled job during startup (that means on the startup of services), for these cases it’s normally better to use the Scheduler. There might be rare cases where this it is the right solution, but in the majority of cases you should just use the scheduler in that case.
Read Full Blog
Q&A
Please use this thread to ask the related questions.
You must be a registered user to add a comment. If you've already registered, sign in. Otherwise, register and sign in.