Coldbox Scheduled Tasks

Scheduled Tasks

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you need to run background tasks on a schedule — recurring jobs, one-off warm-up tasks, heartbeats, cache cleanup, data sync, or any server-side automation.

Language Mode Reference

Examples use BoxLang / CFML script syntax (both supported identically for scheduler code).

Core Concepts

• Global Scheduler — config/Scheduler.cfc with a configure() method; auto-discovered by ColdBox
• Module Scheduler — each module can have its own Scheduler.cfc inside the module root
• WireBox ID — the global scheduler is available as appScheduler@coldbox
• Task DSL — fluent API on ColdBoxScheduledTask object returned by task( name )
• Built on AsyncManager — backed by Java ScheduledExecutorService

File Location & Structure

config/
  Scheduler.cfc       ← Global app scheduler
modules_app/
  myModule/
    Scheduler.cfc     ← Module-level scheduler

Minimal Scheduler

// config/Scheduler.cfc
component {

    function configure() {
        task( "Clear Old Sessions" )
            .call( () => getInstance( "SessionService" ).purgeExpired() )
            .everyDayAt( "02:00" );
    }
}

Full Scheduler Template

component {

    /**
     * Configure global scheduler settings and register tasks.
     * Available config methods:
     *   setTimezone( "America/Chicago" )
     *   setExecutor( asyncManager.newScheduledExecutor("myPool", 50) )
     *   setCacheName( "redis" )          ← for server fixation
     *   setServerFixation( true )        ← run once across all nodes
     */
    function configure() {

        // ---------- Global Settings ----------
        setTimezone( "UTC" );

        // ---------- Recurring Tasks ----------
        task( "Heartbeat" )
            .call( () => runEvent( "main.heartbeat" ) )
            .every( 5, "minutes" )
            .onFailure( ( task, exception ) => {
                getInstance( "AlertService" ).sendAlert( exception.message )
            } );

        task( "Daily Cleanup" )
            .call( () => getInstance( "CleanupService" ).run() )
            .everyDayAt( "03:00" )
            .onOneServer()          // clustered apps: run on ONE node only
            .withNoOverlaps();      // prevent task stacking if it runs long

        task( "Weekly Report" )
            .call( () => getInstance( "ReportService" ).generateWeekly() )
            .everyWeekOn( 1, "08:00" )  // Monday at 08:00
            .onEnvironment( [ "production" ] );

        // ---------- One-Off Startup Tasks ----------
        task( "Warm Up Cache" )
            .call( () => getInstance( "CacheWarmer" ).prime() )
            .delay( 30, "seconds" );    // fire once, 30s after app start

        task( "Notify Admin of Startup" )
            .call( () => getInstance( "AdminNotifier" ).appStarted() )
            .delay( 1, "minutes" );
    }

    // ---- Life-Cycle Hooks ----

    function onStartup() {
        // Called after all tasks are registered
        log.info( "Scheduler started" )
    }

    function onShutdown() {
        // Called before scheduler shuts down
        log.info( "Scheduler shutting down" )
    }

    function onAnyTaskError( required task, required exception ) {
        // Called whenever any task throws
        log.error( "Task failed: #task.getName()# — #exception.message#" )
    }

    function onAnyTaskSuccess( required task, result ) {
        // Called whenever any task completes without error
    }

    function beforeAnyTask( required task ) {
        // Called before every task execution
    }

    function afterAnyTask( required task, result ) {
        // Called after every task execution
    }
}

Task DSL Reference

Registering a Task

task( "my-task-name" )          // unique name — returns ColdBoxScheduledTask
    .call( closure )            // required: what to execute
    .everyMinute()              // required: how often (or omit for one-off)

Callable Targets

// Lambda / arrow function
.call( () => getInstance( "MyService" ).doWork() )

// Closure
.call( function() {
    getInstance( "MyService" ).doWork()
} )

// CFC instance — calls run() by default
.call( getInstance( "MyTaskCFC" ) )

// CFC instance with custom method
.call( getInstance( "MyService" ), "cleanup" )

// ColdBox event
.call( () => runEvent( "scheduler.cleanCache" ) )

Frequency Methods

Time units: nanoseconds, microseconds, milliseconds (default), seconds, minutes, hours, days

Overlap Prevention

// Prevent stacking: next run waits for previous to finish
.withNoOverlaps()

// Spaced delay alternative (explicit)
.spacedDelay( 30, "seconds" )

Startup Delay

// Delay first execution only
.delay( 5, "minutes" )

Life-Cycle Methods Per Task

task( "example" )
    .call( () => doWork() )
    .everyMinute()
    .before( ( task ) => {
        // runs before each execution
    } )
    .after( ( task, results ) => {
        // runs after each execution
    } )
    .onFailure( ( task, exception ) => {
        // handle errors
    } )
    .onSuccess( ( task, results ) => {
        // handle success
    } )

Constraints

// Run only when a condition is true at runtime
.when( () => getSetting( "tasksEnabled" ) )

// Restrict to specific environments
.onEnvironment( "production" )
.onEnvironment( [ "staging", "production" ] )

// Date range
.startOn( "2025-01-01", "00:00" )
.endOn( "2025-12-31", "23:59" )

// Time-of-day window
.between( "09:00", "17:00" )
.startOnTime( "09:00" )
.endOnTime( "17:00" )

// Specific timezone for this task
.setTimezone( "America/New_York" )

Server Fixation (Clustering)

// Run on only ONE node in a cluster — requires distributed cache
task( "nightly-report" )
    .call( () => reportService.build() )
    .everyDayAt( "01:00" )
    .onOneServer()
    .setCacheName( "redis" )   // change the fixation cache (default: "template")

Disable / Enable

// Permanently disabled at registration
.disable()

// Re-enable at runtime
myTask.enable()

// Prefix with "x" to disable (like xdescribe in TestBox)
xtask( "Disabled Task" )
    .call( () => doWork() )
    .everyMinute()

Module Scheduler

Create Scheduler.cfc in your module root. Module schedulers have extra auto-injected variables: moduleMapping, modulePath, moduleSettings.

// modules_app/myModule/Scheduler.cfc
component {

    function configure() {
        task( "Module Sync" )
            .call( () => getInstance( "SyncService@myModule" ).sync() )
            .everyHour()
    }
}

Register it in ModuleConfig.cfc — ColdBox discovers scheduler files automatically when they exist in the module root.

Scheduler Properties Available in configure()

Helper methods available: getInstance(), announce(), runEvent(), runRoute(), getSetting(), getCache(), getModuleSettings(), view(), layout()

Key Rules

• Always create a unique task name — duplicate names cause conflicts.
• Call .call() before any frequency method.
• Use .withNoOverlaps() on tasks that may run longer than their interval.
• Use .onOneServer() for tasks that must run once across a cluster — requires a distributed cache.
• Omit any frequency method to make a task one-off (run once at startup, optionally after a delay()).
• Use xtask() prefix to temporarily disable a task without removing it (like TestBox's xdescribe).