Background Processing In ASP.NET Core With Hangfire

In this article, we will learn an easy way to perform background processing in .NET Core applications. A background process/job is a process that runs behind the scenes without user intervention. Hangfire is a simple, persistent, transparent, reliable, and efficient open-source library used to perform background processing in .NET and .NET Core applications.

 

Why Background Processing?

• Lengthy operations like database updates
• Invoice generation
• Monthly reports
• Automatic subscription renewal
• Email upon sign-up

Background Jobs/Tasks

•   Fire and Forget 
•   Delayed
•   Periodic and Scheduled
•   Continuations

Fire and Forget

 

These tasks happen only once. For example, sending a welcome email when a user signup.

Delayed

 

Delayed tasks are like fire and forget but do not execute them as soon as the action is taken instead, we define a time when the background job is going to run. For example when we want to send a voucher or discount to a user 5 hours after they signed up.

 

Periodic and Scheduled

 

These jobs are performed periodically based on a schedule, for example, generating marketing emails or generating invoices.

 

Continuations

 

Continuations are executed when their parent job has been finished.
 

Step 1

 

Create a new project as shown below,

 

 

 

Step 2

 

Let's install the Hangfire Nuget package as shown below,

 

 

Step 3

 

Open Startup.cs file and change as per the readme file from hangfire. Inside the configure services plese add the hangfire services as shown below,

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Hangfire;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.HttpsPolicy;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;

namespace hangfire_webapi
{
    public class Startup
    {
        public Startup(IConfiguration configuration)
        {
            Configuration = configuration;
        }

        public IConfiguration Configuration { get; }

        // This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to add services to the container.
        public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
        {
            services.AddHangfire(x => x.UseSqlServerStorage(@"Data Source=.;Initial Catalog=hangfire-webapi-db;Integrated Security=True;Pooling=False"));
            services.AddHangfireServer();
            services.AddControllers();
        }

        // This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to configure the HTTP request pipeline.
        public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IWebHostEnvironment env)
        {
            if (env.IsDevelopment())
            {
                app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
            }

            app.UseHttpsRedirection();
            app.UseHangfireDashboard();
            app.UseRouting();

            app.UseAuthorization();

            app.UseEndpoints(endpoints =>
            {
                endpoints.MapControllers();
            });
        }
    }
}

Step 4

 

Let's configure the database open SQL server and create a database as shown below,

 

Step 5

 

Create a controller and schedule all types of background jobs,

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Hangfire;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;

namespace hangfire_webapi.Controllers
{
    [ApiController]
    [Route("api/[controller]")]
    public class HangfireController : ControllerBase
    {
        [HttpPost]
        [Route("[action]")]
        public IActionResult Welcome()
        {
            var jobId = BackgroundJob.Enqueue(() => SendWelcomeEmail("Welcome to our app"));

            return Ok($"Job ID: {jobId}. Welcome email sent to the user!");
        }

        [HttpPost]
        [Route("[action]")]
        public IActionResult Discount()
        {
            int timeInSeconds = 30;
            var jobId = BackgroundJob.Schedule(() => SendWelcomeEmail("Welcome to our app"), TimeSpan.FromSeconds(timeInSeconds));

            return Ok($"Job ID: {jobId}. Discount email will be sent in {timeInSeconds} seconds!");
        }

        [HttpPost]
        [Route("[action]")]
        public IActionResult DatabaseUpdate()
        {
            RecurringJob.AddOrUpdate(() => Console.WriteLine("Database updated"), Cron.Minutely);
            return Ok("Database check job initiated!");
        }

        [HttpPost]
        [Route("[action]")]
        public IActionResult Confirm()
        {
            int timeInSeconds = 30;
            var parentJobId = BackgroundJob.Schedule(() => Console.WriteLine("You asked to be unsubscribed!"), TimeSpan.FromSeconds(timeInSeconds));

            BackgroundJob.ContinueJobWith(parentJobId, () => Console.WriteLine("You were unsubscribed!"));

            return Ok("Confirmation job created!");
        }


        public void SendWelcomeEmail(string text)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(text);
        }
    }
}

Let's test through Postman,

Now we can see the hangfire Dashboard as below,

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed how to schedule background jobs/tasks using .Net core, Hangfire, and SQL server. I hope you all enjoyed reading this and learned from it. For better understanding download the source code.