[development] Batch API on cron

[larry at garfieldtech.com]

I've used drupal_queue on a project recently and I very much like it. 
It's a backport of the Drupal 7 queue system, too, which gives you an 
easier upgrade path in the future.  It was designed to scale to millions 
of queue items, although not withe the default backend plugin.  The 
default one is good for a couple hundred records, probably.

It's a really nice architecture overall.

--Larry Garfield

On 7/15/10 6:36 AM, Yves Chedemois wrote:
> Queue D6 backport sounds a good idea -
> http://drupal.org/project/drupal_queue
> Never tested it, though.
>
> Yves
>
> Le 15/07/2010 13:28, Sven Decabooter a écrit :
>> That's clear, and it makes sense. Thanks Yves!
>>
>> Any pointers as to how I could have large chunks of data processed on
>> cron in another way?
>>
>>
>> Sven
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 1:25 PM, Yves Chedemois <yched.drupal at free.fr
>> <mailto:yched.drupal at free.fr>> wrote:
>>
>>     Batch API works around the PHP timeout limitation by relying on a
>>     client browser to iterate separate requests, each of which stays
>>     below the time limitation.
>>     So yes, Batch API can only be used in a UI context, which excludes
>>     cron.
>>
>>     For the same reason, it is not recommended to fire a batch
>>     processing inside an API function, since you cannot ensure it will
>>     be executed in a safe-for-batch context.
>>
>>     Yched
>>
>>     Le 15/07/2010 11:01, Sven Decabooter a écrit :
>>
>>         Hi,
>>
>>         I'm reading contradicting posts about running Batch API
>>         processes on cron. This is for Drupal 6 BTW.
>>         I have tried implementing a batch functionality that should be
>>         run on cron, but it doesn't seem to process the work that
>>         needs to be done.
>>         I assume this is because running the cron through a
>>         commandline command doesn't allow for javascript...
>>
>>         So my questions:
>>         - Have I implemented Batch API incorrectly, and should it
>>         normally work also on cron?
>>         - What is the best way to run a process that would normally
>>         trigger a php script timeout? Can I use the Queue module for that?
>>
>>         I'm sure plenty of people have already tried doing this, so
>>         I'm not sure why I can find little consistent information
>>         about it.
>>
>>         Thanks for your feedback.
>>
>>         Sven
>>
>>
>>
>