Introduction:

In today's web applications, it is often necessary to perform background tasks that can take a long time to complete. Examples of such tasks include sending emails, processing data, or generating reports. If we execute these tasks in the main thread, the user will have to wait for the task to complete, leading to poor user experience. To overcome this issue, we can use a background job processing system that runs the task asynchronously in the background, allowing the user to continue using the application without any delay. In this article, we will learn about Hangfire, a popular open-source library for .NET Core applications that simplifies the process of creating and managing background jobs.

What is Hangfire?

Hangfire is a .NET library that allows you to perform background processing tasks in your .NET applications. It is an open-source library that provides a simple and easy-to-use API for creating and managing background jobs. It is built on top of the .NET platform, so it can be used in any .NET application. Hangfire allows you to perform long-running, CPU-intensive tasks in the background, freeing up the main thread for other operations.

Hangfire is a reliable and scalable system that provides different storage options to store job data. It supports various storage providers, such as SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, and MongoDB. Hangfire provides a dashboard that allows you to monitor and manage background jobs. You can view the status of each job, including the job history and execution time.

Benefits of using Hangfire:

There are several benefits of using Hangfire for background job processing in your .NET Core application:

• Simple and easy-to-use API: Hangfire provides a simple and easy-to-use API that allows you to create and manage background jobs in your .NET application. You can create background jobs by simply adding a method call to the Hangfire queue.
• Scalable: Hangfire is a scalable system that can handle a large number of background jobs. It provides different storage options to store job data, so you can choose the one that suits your application's requirements.
• Reliable: Hangfire provides a reliable system for background job processing. It ensures that jobs are executed even if the application is restarted or the server crashes.
• Dashboard: Hangfire provides a dashboard that allows you to monitor and manage the background jobs. You can view the status of each job, including the job history and execution time.
• Supports different storage providers: Hangfire supports various storage providers, such as SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, and MongoDB. You can choose the storage provider that suits your application's requirements.

Getting started with Hangfire: To get started with Hangfire, you need to install the Hangfire NuGet package in your .NET Core application. You can do this using the Package Manager Console by running the following command:

Install-Package Hangfire

Once you have installed the package, you need to configure Hangfire in your application. You can do this by adding the following code to the ConfigureServices method in the Startup.cs file:

services.AddHangfire(config =>
{
    config.UseSqlServerStorage(Configuration.GetConnectionString("HangfireConnection"));
});

This code configures Hangfire to use SQL Server storage. You need to replace the "HangfireConnection" string with your own connection string.

After configuring Hangfire, you can create a background job by adding a method call to the Hangfire queue. For example, the following code creates a background job that sends an email:

BackgroundJob.Enqueue(() => SendEmail("[email protected]", "Hello"));

This code adds a method call to the Hangfire queue, which will execute the SendEmail method in the background.

You can also create a recurring background job using the following code:

RecurringJob.AddOrUpdate(() => SendEmail("[email protected]", "Hello"), Cron.Daily);

This code creates a recurring background job that sends an email every day at a specific time.

Hangfire Dashboard:

Hangfire provides a dashboard that allows you to monitor and manage background jobs. You can access the dashboard by navigating to "/hangfire" in your application. The dashboard displays the status of each job, including the job history and execution time.

The dashboard also allows you to perform various operations on the background jobs, such as deleting or retrying a job. You can also configure the dashboard to use different authentication methods, such as ASP.NET Core Identity or custom authentication.

Conclusion:

Hangfire is a powerful and easy-to-use library for performing background job processing in .NET Core applications. It provides a reliable and scalable system for executing long-running, CPU-intensive tasks in the background, freeing up the main thread for other operations. Hangfire provides a simple and easy-to-use API for creating and managing background jobs, and it supports various storage providers, such as SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, and MongoDB.

The Hangfire dashboard allows you to monitor and manage the background jobs, and it provides various operations to manage the jobs. By using Hangfire, you can improve the user experience of your application by performing time-consuming tasks in the background.