MVC - Run a scheduled task even if no one logs into the application

You can create a singleton in yours too ApplicationStart();

, which will run every 24 hours and then send emails. It will block this thread for 24 hours.

This is a very bad approach, but it seems like you have no other options when you are on shared hosting without access to the real system.

I think this question boils down to this: Do you need the ability to start / stop a service and run in a webapp yet?

I personally try not to install a Windows service because it adds another layer of complexity that might break / not work. If you are using quartz or just a basic timer in your web application, scheduling will be done when your application starts up.

With in-app scheduling, you can install your webapp with a simple copy of the file.

Of course, there are situations where you need to do heavy background jobs, then you might need to consider a separate batch job project using Windows Service ... but to send multiple emails just use in-app scheduling.

The general way to do this is with Windows Task Scheduler. The problem with calling START or some other command line parameter is that the opened browser can never close or it can close when the task is running.

I wrote a console application to call the website and wait for a response.

Imports System.IO
Imports System.Net

Module Module1

    Sub Main()
        Dim sw As New Stopwatch
        sw.Start()

        Try
            Dim args = Environment.GetCommandLineArgs.ToList
            If args.Count = 1 Then Throw New Exception("WebsiteWaitResponse url [user] [password]")

            Console.WriteLine("{0:c} WebsiteWaitResponse {1:g}", sw.Elapsed, Now())

            Dim web As New WebClient
            If args.Count > 2 Then web.Credentials = New NetworkCredential(args(2), args(3))
            Dim results = web.DownloadString(args(1))
            Console.WriteLine(results)

        Catch ex As Exception
            Console.WriteLine(ex.Message)
        End Try

        Console.WriteLine("{0:c} WebsiteWaitResponse Complete", sw.Elapsed)
        End
    End Sub

End Module

      

        
        
        
      

    

Create a scheduled task that calls this application with command line parameters as follows:

MyConsoleApp url [userid] [password]

      

        
        
        
      

    

where [userid] and [password] are optional and are used for ntlm authentication

MyConsoleApp http://mywebsite/controller/function mydomain\myuser mypassword

      

        
        
        
      

    

Hangfire to the rescue. This is perhaps the easiest and most reliable way to solve this problem. It comes with a dashboard that makes it easy to manage and monitor your background tasks.