ActsAsAsync

ActsAsAsync is an ActiveRecord extension that provides your models with easy-to-use Resque helpers.

Installation

Installing ActsAsAsync is as simple as adding it to your Gemfile:

gem "acts_as_async"

Usage

ActsAsAsync aims to be as simple as possible to use. Including it in your model is as easy as:

class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_async
end

Basic usage

ActsAsAsync adds three instance methods to your model that you can use to async any other instance method:

post = Post.create(:body => "Wow, acts_as_async is neat!")

# Self-destruct as soon as possible
post.async(:destroy)

# Self-destruct at this time tomorrow
post.async_at(Time.now + 1.day, :destroy)

# Self-destruct in 10 minutes
post.async_in(10.minutes, :destroy)

It also adds three identical class methods:

Post.async(:destroy_all)
Post.async_at(1.day.from_now, :destroy_all)
Post.async_in(10.minutes, :destroy_all)

Dynamic methods

In addition to the helper methods above, ActsAsAsync supports dynamic methods for any existing method on your model. For example:

class Audiobook < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_async

  def transcribe
    # Some long-running logic here
  end

  def read!
    # Computers like to read too!
  end

  def paint(color)
    # I don't know why you'd paint a book...
  end
end

book = Audiobook.first

# Transcribe the book as soon as possible
book.async_transcribe

# Read the book at this time tomorrow
book.async_read_at!(Time.now + 1.day)

# Paint the book blue in a couple years
book.async_paint_in(2.years, "blue")

Additional notes

• You can pass any number of additional arguments to async'd methods so long as they can be serialized into JSON
• Adding acts_as_async to your Gemfile automatically loads both Resque and Resque-scheduler's rake tasks. This means you can use both $ rake resque:work and $ rake resque:scheduler right out of the box.
• By deafult, each model will add tasks to a queue named "default". You can pass the :queue option to acts_as_async to specify a different queue.
• Dynamic methods support names with exclamation points but not question marks. This was a design decision to discourage misuse of the question mark in method names. If you absolutely must async a method with a question mark, just use one of the async :method helpers.

Everything else...

ActsAsAsync is simply a thin layer on top of Resque and Resque-scheduler. To learn how to configure your redis connection, run workers, view the web interface, and more visit their home pages.

Compatibility

ActsAsAsync is tested against the following Rubies: MRI 1.8.7, MRI 1.9.2, MRI 1.9.3, Rubinius 2.0, and JRuby.

License

ActsAsAsync is released under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more info.