How to call function on timer ASP.NET MVC

Question

I need to call function on timer (lets say onTickTack() function) and reload some info in ASP.NET MVC project. I know that there are several ways to do that, but which one is the best by your opinion?

Note: the function should be called from one place only, and should be called every X mins till application is up.

EDIT 1: Reload some info - for example I have something in the Cache and I want to update it from DB on timer - once a day in certain time.

Answer 1

The answer to this question would very much depend on what do you mean by reload some info in ASP.NET MVC project. This is not a clearly stated problem and as such, more than obviously, it cannot have a clearly stated answer.

So if we assume that by this you want to periodically poll some controller action and update information on a view you could use the setInterval javascript function to periodically poll the server by sending an AJAX request and update the UI:

window.setInterval(function() {
    // Send an AJAX request every 5s to poll for changes and update the UI
    // example with jquery:
    $.get('/foo', function(result) {
        // TODO: use the results returned from your controller action
        // to update the UI
    });
}, 5000);

If on the other hand you mean executing some task on the server at regular periods you could use the RegisterWaitForSingleObject method like this:

var waitHandle = new AutoResetEvent(false);
ThreadPool.RegisterWaitForSingleObject(
    waitHandle, 
    // Method to execute
    (state, timeout) => 
    {
        // TODO: implement the functionality you want to be executed
        // on every 5 seconds here
        // Important Remark: This method runs on a worker thread drawn 
        // from the thread pool which is also used to service requests
        // so make sure that this method returns as fast as possible or
        // you will be jeopardizing worker threads which could be catastrophic 
        // in a web application. Make sure you don't sleep here and if you were
        // to perform some I/O intensive operation make sure you use asynchronous
        // API and IO completion ports for increased scalability
    }, 
    // optional state object to pass to the method
    null, 
    // Execute the method after 5 seconds
    TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5), 
    // Set this to false to execute it repeatedly every 5 seconds
    false
);

If you mean something else, don't hesitate to provide more details to your question.

Answer 2

You can use the Timer class in OnApplicationStart Event of Glbal.asax...

public static System.Timers.Timer timer = new System.Timers.Timer(60000); // This will raise the event every one minute.
.
.
.

timer.Enabled = true;
timer.Elapsed += new System.Timers.ElapsedEventHandler(timer_Elapsed);
.
.
.

static void timer_Elapsed(object sender, System.Timers.ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
  // Do Your Stuff
}

Answer 3

I do this by starting a worker thread from Application_Start().

Here's my class:

public interface IWorker
{
    void DoWork(object anObject);
}

public enum WorkerState
{
    Starting = 0,
    Started,
    Stopping,
    Stopped,
    Faulted
}

public class Worker : IWorker
{
    public WorkerState State { get; set; }

    public virtual void DoWork(object anObject)
    {
        while (!_shouldStop)
        {
            // Do some work
            Thread.Sleep(5000);
        }

        // thread is stopping
        // Do some final work
    }

    public void RequestStop()
    {
        State = WorkerState.Stopping;
        _shouldStop = true;
    }
    // Volatile is used as hint to the compiler that this data
    // member will be accessed by multiple threads.
    protected volatile bool _shouldStop;
}

It's started like this:

        var backgroundThread = new Thread(Worker.DoWork)
                                  {
                                      IsBackground = true,
                                      Name = "MyThread"
                                  };
        backgroundThread.Start();