In this video, I am going to walk you through how to use the SiteCron module to run Sitecore Commerce Engine Minions. Sitecore jobs along with Sitecore Commerce Minions run on an interval basis. If you need a way to accurately run your Minions based on CRON expressions or at a specific date and time, you would need to use SiteCron. Here is some code:

1. using System ;
2. using System . Collections . Generic ;
3. using System . Threading . Tasks ;
4. using System . Web . Http . OData ;
5. using Konabos . Minions . RunMinion . Commands ;
6. using Microsoft . AspNetCore . Mvc ;
7. using Newtonsoft . Json . Linq ;
8. using Sitecore . Commerce . Core ;
9. using Sitecore . Commerce . Core . Commands ;
10.  
11. namespace Konabos . Minions . RunMinion . Controllers
12. {
13. public class CommandsController : CommerceController
14. {
15. private readonly EntitySerializerCommand _entitySerializerCommand ;
16.  
17. public CommandsController ( IServiceProvider serviceProvider , CommerceEnvironment globalEnvironment , EntitySerializerCommand entitySerializerCommand )
18. : base ( serviceProvider , globalEnvironment )
19. {
20. this . _entitySerializerCommand  = entitySerializerCommand ;
21. }
22.  
23.  
24. [ HttpPut ]
25. [ Route ( "RunMinionNow()" )]
26. public async Task < IActionResult > RunMinionNow ( [ FromBody ] ODataActionParameters value )
27. {
28. CommandsController commandsController  = this ;
29. if (! commandsController . ModelState . IsValid || value == null )
30. return ( IActionResult ) new BadRequestObjectResult ( commandsController . ModelState );
31. if ( value . ContainsKey ( "minionFullName" ) && value . ContainsKey ( "environmentName" ))
32. {
33. var minionFullName  = value [ "minionFullName" ]. ToString ();
34. var environmentName  = value [ "environmentName" ]. ToString ();
35. if ((! string . IsNullOrEmpty ( minionFullName  != null ? minionFullName . ToString () : ( string ) null )) && (! string . IsNullOrEmpty ( environmentName  != null ? environmentName . ToString () : ( string ) null )))
36. {
37.  
38. List < Policy > policies  = new List < Policy >();
39. if ( value . ContainsKey ( "policies" ))
40. {
41. JArray jarray  = ( JArray ) value [ "policies" ];
42. if ( jarray  != null )
43. {
44. foreach ( object obj  in jarray )
45. {
46. string serializedEntity  = obj . ToString (). Replace ( "" @odata . type ": " #Sitecore.Commerce.Core.RunMinionPolicy"", ""$type": "Sitecore.Commerce.Core.RunMinionPolicy, Sitecore.Commerce.Core"");
47. policies . Add ( await commandsController . _entitySerializerCommand . Deserialize < Policy >( commandsController . CurrentContext , serializedEntity ));
48. }
49. }
50. }
51.  
52. RunMinionNowCommand command  = commandsController . Command < RunMinionNowCommand >();
53. var resutlt  = await command . Process ( commandsController . CurrentContext , minionFullName , environmentName , policies );
54. return ( IActionResult ) new ObjectResult (( object ) command );
55. }
56. }
57. return ( IActionResult ) new BadRequestObjectResult (( object ) value );
58. }
59. }
60. }
61. using System ;
62. using System . Collections . Generic ;
63. using System . Threading . Tasks ;
64. using Sitecore . Commerce . Core ;
65. using Sitecore . Commerce . Core . Commands ;
66. using Sitecore . Framework . Pipelines ;
67.  
68. namespace Konabos . Minions . RunMinion . Commands
69. {
70. public class RunMinionNowCommand : CommerceCommand
71. {
72.  
73. private readonly IRunMinionPipeline _runMinionPipeline ;
74. private readonly GetEnvironmentCommand _getEnvironment ;
75.  
76. public RunMinionNowCommand ( IRunMinionPipeline runMinionPipeline , IServiceProvider serviceProvider , GetEnvironmentCommand getEnvironmentPipeline )
77. : base ( serviceProvider )
78. {
79. this . _runMinionPipeline  = runMinionPipeline ;
80. this . _getEnvironment  = getEnvironmentPipeline ;
81. }
82.  
83. public virtual async Task < RunMinionNowCommand > Process ( CommerceContext commerceContext , string minionFullName , string environmentName , IList < Policy > policies )
84. {
85. RunMinionNowCommand runMinionNowCommand  = this ;
86. //var result = this._runMinionPipeline.Run(new RunMinionArgument(minionFullName));
87.  
88. //return Task.FromResult(result.IsCompleted);
89.  
90. using ( CommandActivity . Start ( commerceContext , ( CommerceCommand ) runMinionNowCommand ))
91. {
92. if ( policies  == null )
93. policies  = ( IList < Policy >) new List < Policy >();
94. CommerceEnvironment commerceEnvironment  = await  this . _getEnvironment . Process ( commerceContext , environmentName ) ?? commerceContext . Environment ;
95. CommercePipelineExecutionContextOptions pipelineContextOptions  = commerceContext . GetPipelineContextOptions ();
96. pipelineContextOptions . CommerceContext . Environment = commerceEnvironment ;
97. IRunMinionPipeline runMinionPipeline  = this . _runMinionPipeline ;
98. RunMinionArgument runMinionArgument  = new RunMinionArgument ( minionFullName );
99. runMinionArgument . Policies = policies ;
100. CommercePipelineExecutionContextOptions executionContextOptions  = pipelineContextOptions ;
101. int num  = await runMinionPipeline . Run ( runMinionArgument , ( IPipelineExecutionContextOptions ) executionContextOptions ) ? 1 : 0 ;
102. }
103. return runMinionNowCommand ;
104.  
105. }
106. }
107. }
108. // --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
109. // <copyright file="ConfigureServiceApiBlock.cs" company="Sitecore Corporation">
110. // Copyright (c) Sitecore Corporation 1999-2017
111. // </copyright>
112. // --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
113.  
114. namespace Sitecore . Commerce . Plugin . Sample
115. {
116. using System . Threading . Tasks ;
117.  
118. using Microsoft . AspNetCore . OData . Builder ;
119.  
120. using Sitecore . Commerce . Core ;
121. using Sitecore . Commerce . Core . Commands ;
122. using Sitecore . Framework . Conditions ;
123. using Sitecore . Framework . Pipelines ;
124.  
125. /// <summary>
126. /// Defines a block which configures the OData model
127. /// </summary>
128. /// <seealso>
129. /// <cref>
130. /// Sitecore.Framework.Pipelines.PipelineBlock{Microsoft.AspNetCore.OData.Builder.ODataConventionModelBuilder,
131. /// Microsoft.AspNetCore.OData.Builder.ODataConventionModelBuilder,
132. /// Sitecore.Commerce.Core.CommercePipelineExecutionContext}
133. /// </cref>
134. /// </seealso>
135. [ PipelineDisplayName ( "FeatureRunMinionConfigureServiceApiBlock" )]
136. public class ConfigureServiceApiBlock : PipelineBlock < ODataConventionModelBuilder , ODataConventionModelBuilder , CommercePipelineExecutionContext >
137. {
138. /// <summary>
139. /// The execute.
140. /// </summary>
141. /// <param name="modelBuilder">
142. /// The argument.
143. /// </param>
144. /// <param name="context">
145. /// The context.
146. /// </param>
147. /// <returns>
148. /// The <see cref="ODataConventionModelBuilder"/>.
149. /// </returns>
150. public override Task < ODataConventionModelBuilder > Run ( ODataConventionModelBuilder modelBuilder , CommercePipelineExecutionContext context )
151. {
152. Condition . Requires ( modelBuilder ). IsNotNull ( $ "{this.Name}: The argument cannot be null." );
153.  
154. ActionConfiguration actionConfiguration2  = modelBuilder . Action ( "RunMinionNow" );
155. actionConfiguration2 . Parameter <string> ( "minionFullName" );
156. actionConfiguration2 . Parameter <string> ( "environmentName" );
157. actionConfiguration2 . ReturnsFromEntitySet < CommerceCommand >( "Commands" );
158.  
159.  
160. return Task . FromResult ( modelBuilder );
161. }
162. }
163. }
164. using System ;
165. using Quartz ;
166. using Sitecore . Commerce . Engine . Connect ;
167. using Sitecore . Commerce . ServiceProxy ;
168. using Sitecore . Diagnostics ;
169. using Sitecron . Core . Jobs ;
170. using Sitecron . SitecronSettings ;
171.  
172. namespace Feature . Konabos . Loyalty . Website . SiteCron
173. {
174. public class RunMinionNow : IJob //Inherit from IJob interface from Quartz
175. {
176. public void Execute ( IJobExecutionContext context )
177. {
178. try
179. {
180. //get job parameters
181. JobDataMap dataMap  = context . JobDetail . JobDataMap ; //get the datamap from the Quartz job
182. var job  = ( SitecronJob ) dataMap [ SitecronConstants . ParamNames . SitecronJob ]; //get the SitecronJob from the job definition
183. if ( job  == null )
184. throw new Exception ( "Unable to load SiteCron Job Definition" );
185.  
186. Log . Info ( string . Format ( "Executing RunMinionsNow: {0} {1}" , job . MinionFullName , job . EnvironmentName ), this );
187.  
188. var container  = EngineConnectUtility . GetShopsContainer ();
189. Proxy . DoCommand ( container . RunMinionNow ( job . MinionFullName , job . EnvironmentName ));
190. }
191. catch ( Exception ex )
192. {
193. Log . Error ( "Sitecron: Commerce.RunMinionNow: ERROR something went wrong - " + ex . Message , ex , this );
194. }
195. }
196. }
197. }

If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch with me. (@akshaysura13 on Twitter or on Slack).

Links:

• https://www.akshaysura.com/?s=sitecron
• https://github.com/akshaysura/Sitecron