Perform a function at a given time

Question

Good morning, recently I’m wanting to run a method that makes sending newsletter type mails from time to time. I believe I have found the solution, but I cannot put it into practice which is as follows::

/****************************************************************************
*
*                         Agendador de Tarefas
*
*  Desenvolvido por Lucas Phillip
*
/***************************************************************************/

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Threading;

namespace MyTimers
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Cria uma nova agenda.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="horario"></param>
    class Scheduler
    {
        private static Dictionary<string, Scheduler> SchedulePool = new Dictionary<string, Scheduler>();

        private System.Threading.Timer scheculetimer;
        private StartTime start;
        private TimerCallback MethodCallBack;
        private TimeSpan frequencia;
        private int maxexec = 0;

        /// <summary>
        /// Define ou Retorna o ID da tarefa
        /// </summary>
        public String ID { get; set; }
        /// <summary>
        /// Define ou Retorna a frequência com que a tarefa se repete após sua primeira execução.
        /// Utilize timespan(0) para não repetir
        /// </summary>
        public TimeSpan Frequencia { get { return frequencia; } set { frequencia = value; } }
        /// <summary>
        /// Retorna o número de vezes que que o método foi executado
        /// </summary>
        public int CountExec { get; set; }
        /// <summary>
        /// Define ou Retorna o número máximo de vezes para executar a tarefa
        /// </summary>
        public int MaxExec { get { return maxexec; } set { maxexec = value; } }
        /// <summary>
        /// Define ou Retorna o objeto Timer da tarefa
        /// </summary>
        public System.Threading.Timer ScheduleTimer { get { return scheculetimer; } set { scheculetimer = value; } }

        public Scheduler(TimerCallback Method)
        {
            MethodCallBack = Method;
        }

        public class StartTime
        {
            public int Hour { get; set; }
            public int Minutes { get; set; }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Adiciona uma nova tarefa que será executada determidado horário
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="State"></param>
        /// <param name="Execute"></param>
        public void AddSchedule(object State, StartTime horario)
        {
            start = horario;
            if (ID != null)
            {
                TimerCallback method = new TimerCallback(Loop);
                ScheduleTimer = new System.Threading.Timer(method, State, StartDelay(), Frequencia);

                SchedulePool.Add(ID, this);
            }
            else
            {
                throw new Exception("É preciso definir um ID para a tarefa!");
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Adiciona uma tarefa que será executada depois de um delay
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="State"></param>
        /// <param name="Delay"></param>
        public void StartWithDelay(object State, TimeSpan Delay)
        {
            if (ID != null)
            {
                TimerCallback method = new TimerCallback(Loop);
                ScheduleTimer = new System.Threading.Timer(method, State, Delay, Frequencia);

                SchedulePool.Add(ID, this);
            }
            else
            {
                throw new Exception("É preciso definir um ID para a tarefa!");
            }
        }

        private void Loop(object State)
        {
            //Adicinona +1 à contagem de vezes que a tarefa foi executada
            CountExec++;
            if (MaxExec > 0)
            {
                if (CountExec > MaxExec)
                {
                    Dispose();
                    return;
                }
            }

            //Invoca o metedo
            MethodCallBack.Invoke(State);

            //Confere se a tarefa se repete. Se não repetir libera a memória
            if (Frequencia.Ticks == 0)
            {
                Dispose();
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Retorna um TimeSpan com o dalay inicial, baseado na data agendada
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns></returns>
        private TimeSpan StartDelay()
        {
            //Define os minutos antes de definir a hora, pois aqueles podem influenciar nestes
            int waitminute = GetMinutes();
            int waithour = GetHour();
            return new TimeSpan(waithour, waitminute, 0);
        }

        private int GetMinutes()
        {
            if (start.Minutes > DateTime.Now.Minute)
            {
                return start.Minutes - DateTime.Now.Minute;
            }
            else
            {
                start.Hour--;
                return start.Minutes - DateTime.Now.Minute + 60;
            }
        }

        private int GetHour()
        {
            if (start.Hour > DateTime.Now.Hour)
            {
                return start.Hour - DateTime.Now.Hour;
            }
            else if (start.Hour < DateTime.Now.Hour)
            {
                return start.Hour - DateTime.Now.Hour + 24;
            }
            else
            {
                return 0;
            }
        }

        public void Dispose()
        {
            ScheduleTimer.Dispose();
            if (SchedulePool.ContainsKey(ID))
                SchedulePool.Remove(ID);
        }

        public class Control
        {
            /// <summary>
            /// Retorna a referencia para a tarefa
            /// </summary>
            /// <param name="ScheduleId"></param>
            /// <returns></returns>
            public static Scheduler GetTimer(String ScheduleId)
            {
                if (SchedulePool.ContainsKey(ScheduleId))
                {
                    return SchedulePool[ScheduleId];
                }
                else
                {
                    throw new Exception("A tarefa especificada para cancelar não existe");
                }
            }

            /// <summary>
            /// Cancela a tarefa atual
            /// </summary>
            /// <param name="ScheduleId"></param>
            public static void Cancel(String ScheduleId)
            {
                Scheduler schedule = GetTimer(ScheduleId);
                schedule.Dispose();
            }

            /// <summary>
            /// Adiciona um int à quantidade máxima de execuções. Se não houver limite, define um.
            /// </summary>
            /// <param name="ScheduleId"></param>
            /// <param name="Times"></param>
            public static void AddExec(String ScheduleId, int Times)
            {
                Scheduler schedule = GetTimer(ScheduleId);
                schedule.MaxExec += Times;
            }

            /// <summary>
            /// Executa o método agendado.
            /// </summary>
            /// <param name="ScheduleId"></param>
            /// <param name="State"></param>
            public static void Execute(String ScheduleId, object State)
            {
                Scheduler schedule = GetTimer(ScheduleId);
                schedule.MethodCallBack.Invoke(State);
            }
        }
    }
}

I have the problem of how to make the call of the function that executes the sending of the emails. I am doing trying to run with the code:

Scheduler task = new Scheduler(enviaNewsletter);
            task.ID = "EnviaNewsletter";
            task.Frequencia = new TimeSpan(1, 0, 0, 0);
            task.MaxExec = 2;

Scheduler.ControlScheduler.Execute("EnviaNewsletter",1);

And my job is this::

public void enviaNewsletter(Object state)
        {
            Conteúdo...
        }

Someone can help me I tried several ways but no result so for now I stopped here.

Answer 1

I know it’s not quite what you want but the solution to this is to create a scheduled task in the operating system run the application you want. There’s no reason to keep reinventing the wheel.

Know that it is not something trivial and has a huge amount of details that non-expert programmers will have a lot of difficulty.

But if you want to insist at least use a library that does the bulk of the work for you. Some of them:

• Quartz - I believe to be the most used and complete.
• Task Scheduler Managed Wrapper
• A New Task Scheduler Class Library for . NET
• Chroniton