In my extension (a plugin) I want some SQL scripts to run every once in a while (some database cleanup operations); once a day or once a week would probably be enough. Doesn't need to be exactly in that interval, it would be well enough to be triggered if someone accesses the site.
In an ideal world those would probably be run by a cron script, but not everybody using my extension will have access to the crontab on their server, so the solution needs to work without cronjobs.
Searching for "joomla cronjob" and combinations of it I haven't yet found anything already existing in the Joomla framework (just additional extensions, like JPrc Cronjobs; but it needs to be either existing in the framework already or included into my extension).
Thinking about implementing it myself (since my plugin already runs on every site call anyway), the immediate solution coming to mind is storing a timestamp whenever doing the operation, and then for the next operation run, checking whether the appropriate interval has already passed.
However, where would I store the timestamp? A separate table seems complete overkill (although it would probably be the cleanest solution). Is there maybe some simple key-value store for Joomla extensions? I didn't see such a thing yet either.
So, my question boils down to:
Is there a functionality within Joomla framework (working on Joomla >= 2.5) which triggers some code every once in an interval?
Alternatively, is there a place to quickly and simply store a single key-value pair?
Since your code runs on every page call, your second solution would be much simpler to implement. You can utilize the built-in extension parameters to store an extension-specific value.
First, take a look here:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/13221472/1867759
This solution would work perfectly for you. The only difference would be that, since you're already within your plugin, you can access the parameters via $this->params rather than calling them from JComponentHelper.
Hope this helps!
Related
I'm looking of a DTSX file that I didn't make, trying to get an overview of how it works. But I've noticed that every time I open up an Execute SQL Task or File System Task it checks out the dtsx from TFS. I haven't changed anything, so why does it always check out the file?
Because the dtsx file is overly burdensome and mixes UI and data/programming elements in the same backing file? winces
Without seeing the specific file, what I had noticed back when I used version control systems that subscribed to the checkout/modify/checkin pattern is that things such as package configuration, expressions, etc may get re-evaluated as you open tasks which I assume the TFS modify daemon in VS detects the file could get dirty and so checks it out to help you.
You'll also notice that if you run the package, sometimes it gets checked out and marked as modified. Which is totally fun as you get to play: what was I doing before I left my desk? Did I actually make a change or was I just looking?
Not helping matters is that the save action from visual studio always triggers two changes: version build (which is a monotonically increasing number) and the corresponding version guid.
Not an answer, but I can commiserate with your experience. The answer likely lies in the engineering minds in Redmond and was never publicly documented.
I was reading this answer in trying to understand how to work with multiple developers working on multiple branches of a project. My first reflex was to want Jenkins to run a separate build for each branch, but as I understand it, this is a bad way to approach the problem.
Now, I see how having very small features or parts of features which get merged back into the main branch often is the preferred way to go, but I can't quite wrap my head around what happens when a project goes through a very large architectural change.
Say I have a web project written in AngularJS and the team decides that for the future of the project, it needs to be moved over to using ReactJS instead. Said current project would have a reasonable number of features already implemented and tested. At this point, I can't imagine any smaller increment for the new "feature" of using ReactJS other than having it be on part with the current state of the project, meaning every test currently passing should still pass once it's done. Anything else would mean a regression for the project and I know of very few clients who would be ok with this.However, that's hardly going to be the case until the switch is almost 100% done, which will not be a small amount of work.
I might not understand the concept perfectly, but I don't see feature toggles working here (especially if the move to ReactJS requires we modify, say, the Gruntfile since that will inevitably break things a lot). Does the team doing the migration simply needs to tell the rest of the team not to touch the project until they say it's ok? That seems like a weird solution to me.
So I'll admit, I'm at a loss as to what the proper workflow would be here. Any input would be appreciated as our development process is something I constantly try and make better, even with my limited experience in the field.
I want to know if a extension (for example: joomfish) is really used or not used at all before i disable it / uninstall it.
Is there a way to check ?
First, in Joomla plugin has a specific meaning, so what you want to know is whether a component, module or plugin is used.
This is a common problem when you inherit sites. A lot of times users install tons of extensions and never use or uninstall them.
The simplest first step with modules and plugins is to see if they are published or not. Also you can look at modules and see if they are assigned to any positions or menu items.
In terms of extensions, if they are a kind of extension that would be used to create content and you look at the manager you can see if any content was ever created. If not it is probably safe to uninstall. IF there is content then you will want to figure out whether you need o preserve it.
The problem with Mike's answer is .. how do you know if you have tried every possible combination of things or possible events with enough certainty to say for sure that something is not running ever. For example you may have a component that you never use as a menu item but then some module is running a query against its data.
Well you cannot know that. To be absolutely shure you could write a system plugin which gets triggered on plugin calls and logs the triggering plugin names.
Sorry if a similar question has been posed before. There are a lot of deployment questions but none seemed to address my problem.
Anyway. I'm working with asp.net, C# and using Visual Studio.
The Organization I'm working in is changing rapidly. There are a lot of projects coming in the pipeline that will require multiple code changes and iterative deployments over the next few months. While working, these changes are always 'on the forefront', so sometimes I have to code certain parts of the same program multiple times.
Since these projects are all staggered, I can't just make one sweeping change all at once; I have to deploy and redeploy the same program multiple times, using only the changes that are required for that deployment.
If this is confusing, here's a simple example:
Application is being used on an Intranet. This application calls our Database, using Driver A.
There are two environments, test and production.
Certain Stored procedures have to be called with parameters that register 'Test' to allow certain other applications to run even with bad data (for testing purposes).
When deploying applications, these stored procedures have to be modified, removing Test parameters
We have an Operating System upgrade, allowing us to move to a much faster Driver B, but requires changes to be made to the code to use Driver B.
So that's two wholly different deployments where some code must be changed for Deployment 1 and other code must be changed for Deployment 2.
Currently I'm just using notepad for an overall change list, regular debugging break points and a multitude of in-code comments, and then I manually slog through the code to make sure that everything is changed. With hundreds of thousands of lines of code over multiple files, classes, objects, etc. this gets pretty tedious, as well as there being a good chance of missing something (causing it to break) or pushing wrong changes (causing it to either break or allow bad data).
Is there a tool that could be used to help in this situation? Preferably one that I can discern what needs to change for Deployment A and what needs to change for Deployment B? I'm also open to hearing other schools of thought as well (tips are definitely accepted!)
Sure, I understand your problem.
I would suggest a couple of things
Installers : Why don't you think of installers, there are loads of installers i.e Install shield, Wix, MSI installer.
These installers will give you flexibilty to update files which you need to update, i.e. Full Control.
But you need to choose the best of them, I have worked around MSI and Wix a lot, so I know this can sort your problem, however its your call.
Publish : I haven't played around much with this, I have just done website publish. However I know it does wonders, so try it also.
I'm creating a module that requires a few things to be done (once only) when the module is installed. There may be a number of things that need to be done, but the most basic thing that I need to do is make an API call to a server to let the external server know that the module was installed, and to get a few updated configuration items.
I read this this question on stackoverflow however in my situation I truly am interested in executing code that has nothing to do with the database, fixtures, updating tables, etc. Also, just to be clear this module has no affect (effect?) on the front end. FYI, I've also read this spectacular article by Alan Storm, but this really only drives home the point in my mind that the install/upgrade scripts are not for executing random PHP.
In my mind, I have several possible ways to accomplish this:
I do what I fear is not a best practice and add some PHP to my setup/install script to execute this php
I create some sort of cronjob that will execute the task I need once only (not sure how this would work, but it seems like it might be a "creative" solution - of course if cron is not setup properly then this will fail, which is not good
I create a core_config_data flag ('mynamespace/mymodule/initialized') that I set once my script has run, and I check on every area of the adminhtml that my module touches (CMS/Pages and my own custom adminhtml controller). This seems like a good solution except for all of the extra overhead every time CMS/Pages is hit or my controller is hit, checking this core_config_data setting. The GOOD thing about this solution would be that if something were to fail with my API call, I can set this flag to false and it will run again, display the appropriate message, and continue to run until it succeeds (or have additional logic that will stop the initialization code after XX number of attempts)
Are any of these options the "best" way, and is there any sort of precedent for this somewhere, such as a respected extension or from Magento themselves?
Thanks in advance for your time!
You raise an interesting question.
At the moment, I am not aware of a means to go about executing any arbitrary PHP on module installation, the obvious method (rightly/wrongly) would be to use the installer setup/upgrade script as per 1 of your Q.
2 and 3 seem like a more resource intensive approach, ie. needlessly checking on every page load (cache or not).
There is also the approach of using ./pear to install your module (assuming you packaged it using Magento). I had a very quick look through ./downloader/pearlib/php/pearmage.php but didn't see any lines which execute (vs copying files). I would have imagined this is the best place to execute something on install (other than 1 mentioned above).
But, I've never looked into this, so I'm fairly interested in other possible answers.