How to set up a cron job in Django using django-crontab

By | June 23, 2020

Why do we use scheduled tasks

For the static homepage, considering that the data of the page may be maintained by multiple operating personnel and changes frequently, it is made into a scheduled task, that is, the static is performed regularly

Performing scheduled tasks in Django can be achieved through the django-crontab extension.

Installation

pip install django-crontab

Configure installed applications

Add django_crontab to INSTALLED_APPS in settings.py

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'django_crontab',
    ...
]

Set up the task schedule

Set the scheduled execution time in the configuration file.

Each scheduled task is divided into three parts:

  • Task time
Basic format:

* * * * *

Time sharing day month week order

M: minute (0-59). Expressed by * or */1 every minute

H: Hour (0-23). (0 means 0 points)

D: Day (1-31).

m: month (1-12).

d: days within a week (0~6, 0 is Sunday).
  • Task method
  • Task log

The homepage’s scheduled tasks are set as follows

# Scheduled tasks
CRONJOBS = [
     # Execute every 5 minutes to generate homepage static files
     ('*/5 * * * *','contents.crons.generate_static_index_html','>> /var/log/******/logs/crontab.log') # Here is your log path
]

Start the scheduled task

Add scheduled tasks to the system

python manage.py crontab add

Show activated scheduled tasks

python manage.py crontab show

Remove scheduled tasks

python manage.py crontab remove