Configure and Test Laravel Task Scheduling

Question

Environment

• Laravel Version : 5.1.45 (LTS)

• PHP Version : 5.6.1

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Description

I'm trying to run a command every 1 minute using Laravel Task Scheduling.

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Attempt

I've added this line to my cron tab file

* * * * * php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

Here is my /app/Console/Kernel.php

<?php

namespace App\Console;

use Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Schedule;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Console\Kernel as ConsoleKernel;

class Kernel extends ConsoleKernel
{
    /**
     * The Artisan commands provided by your application.
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $commands = [
        \App\Console\Commands\Inspire::class,
    ];

    /**
     * Define the application's command schedule.
     *
     * @param  \Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Schedule  $schedule
     * @return void
     */
    protected function schedule(Schedule $schedule)
    {
        $schedule->command('inspire')->hourly();
        $schedule->command('echo "Happy New Year!" ')->everyMinute(); //<---- ADD HERE        }
}

I've added this line $schedule->command('echo "Happy New Year!" ')->everyMinute();

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Question

How do I test this ?

How do I trigger my echo to display ?

How do I know if what I did is not wrong ?

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I'm opening to any suggestions at this moment.

Any hints / suggestions / helps on this be will be much appreciated !

Answer 1

If you want to unit test the scheduling of events you can use this example. It is based on the default inspire command:

public function testIsAvailableInTheScheduler()
{
    /** @var \Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Schedule $schedule */
    $schedule = app()->make(\Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Schedule::class);

    $events = collect($schedule->events())->filter(function (\Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Event $event) {
        return stripos($event->command, 'YourCommandHere');
    });

    if ($events->count() == 0) {
        $this->fail('No events found');
    }

    $events->each(function (\Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Event $event) {
        // This example is for hourly commands.
        $this->assertEquals('0 * * * * *', $event->expression);
    });
}

Answer 2

Building on Michiel's answer, I've used the methods contained in Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Event to test if the event is due to run for a given date.

I've mocked the current date using Carbon::setTestNow() so that any date based logic in the when() and skip() filters will behave as expected.

use Tests\TestCase;
use Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Schedule;
use Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Event;

use Cron\CronExpression;
use Carbon\Carbon;


class ScheduleTest extends TestCase {


    public function testCompanyFeedbackSchedule()
    {
        $event = $this->getCommandEvent('your-command-signature');

        $test_date = Carbon::now()->startOfDay()->addHours(8);

        for ($i=0; $i < 356; $i++) { 
            $test_date->addDay();
            Carbon::setTestNow($test_date);

            // Run the when() & skip() filters
            $filters_pass = $event->filtersPass($this->app);
            // Test that the Cron expression passes
            $date_passes = $this->isEventDue($event);
            $will_run = $filters_pass && $date_passes;

            // Should only run on first friday of month
            if ($test_date->format('l') === 'Friday' && $test_date->weekOfMonth === 1) {
                $this->assertTrue($will_run, 'Task should run on '. $test_date->toDateTimeString());
            } else {
                $this->assertFalse($will_run, 'Task should not run on '. $test_date->toDateTimeString());
            }
        }
    }


    /**
     * Get the event matching the given command signature from the scheduler
     * 
     * @param  string  $command_signature
     * 
     * @return Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Event
     */
    private function getCommandEvent($command_signature)
    {
        $schedule = app()->make(Schedule::class);

        $event = collect($schedule->events())->first(function (Event $event) use ($command_signature) {
            return stripos($event->command, $command_signature);
        });

        if (!$event) {
            $this->fail('Event for '. $command_signature .' not found');
        }

        return $event;
    }


    /**
     * Determine if the Cron expression passes.
     * 
     * Copied from the protected method Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Event@isEventDue
     * 
     * @return bool
     */
    private function isEventDue(Event $event)
    {
        $date = Carbon::now();

        if ($event->timezone) {
            $date->setTimezone($event->timezone);
        }

        return CronExpression::factory($event->expression)->isDue($date->toDateTimeString());
    }
}

Answer 3

command() runs an artisan command. What you're trying to achieve - issuing a command to the OS - is done by exec('echo "Happy New Year!"')

Testing depends on what you want to test:

• Whether the scheduler (every minute) is working?

In this case, you don't have to. It is tested in the original framework code.

• Whether the command succeeds?

Well, you can manually run php artisan schedule:run and see the output.

The scheduler does not produce any output on default (>> /dev/null 2>&1). You can, however, redirect the output of the runned scripts to any file by chaining writeOutputTo() or appendOutputTo() (https://laravel.com/docs/5.1/scheduling#task-output).

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For more complex logic, write a console command instead (https://laravel.com/docs/5.1/artisan#writing-commands) and use command() - this way you can write nice, testable code.