Tutorial: Schedule a timed task to upload content

When you want to schedule a task for later execution, ScheduledTask and SchedulingManager are the appropriate classes to use. But getting the thread to work and execute the task is a variation from what you might expect.

The following example schedules a timed task that  uploads a Youtube video file to Youtube:

1. Create a class that inherits from ScheduledTask:
   public class YoutubeUploadTask : ScheduledTask {

   public string videoPath { get; set; }

   public string storyTitle { get; set; }

   public Guid storyItemId { get; set; }

    

   public override void ExecuteTask() {

       //Upload to Youtube

      YoutubeHelper.UploadVideo(videoPath, storyTitle, storyItemId);           

   }
2. Override the ExecuteTask Public Constructor:
   public override string TaskName {

       get {

           return this.GetType().FullName;

       }

   }

    public YoutubeUploadTask() {

    }
3. If you need to pass in custom data, you must override GetCustomData and SetCustomData:
       public override void SetCustomData(string customData) {

           var data = customData.Split('\t');

           videoPath = data[0];

           storyTitle = data[1];

           storyItemId = Guid.Parse(data[2]);

       }

     

       public override string GetCustomData() {

           var data = new List<string>() {

               videoPath,

               storyTitle,

               storyItemId.ToString()

           };

    

           return string.Join("\t", data);

       }

   }
4. Create the Task, and then add it to the SchedulingManager:
   //CREATING

   //-------------

   //You cannot EDIT the Dynamic Module Item in a new Thread:

   //new Thread(() => YoutubeHelper.UploadVideo(videoPath, storyTitle, storyItem.Id)).Start();

   //so a new Task is created instead

     

   var schedMgr = SchedulingManager.GetManager();

     

   var newTask = new YoutubeUploadTask() {

       Key = Guid.NewGuid().ToString(),

       ExecuteTime = DateTime.UtcNow.AddSeconds(10),

       videoPath = videoPath,

       storyTitle = storyTitle,

       storyItemId = storyItem.Id

   };

     

   schedMgr.AddTask(newTask);

   schedMgr.SaveChanges();

In this example:

• For the task constructor, you could use a constructor that accepted the parameters; here, parameter-value pairs were listed as a new Task() { parameter name-value pairs };
• A key is needed so that the task can execute
• ExecuteTime is UTC. Note that ten seconds might be too frequent.