django-q2/docs/examples.rst

Examples
--------

Emails
======

Sending an email can take a while so why not queue it:

.. code-block:: python

    # Welcome mail with follow up example
    from datetime import timedelta
    from django.utils import timezone
    from django_q import async, schedule, Schedule


    def welcome_mail(user):
        msg = 'Welcome to our website'
        # send this message right away
        async('django.core.mail.send_mail',
              'Welcome',
              msg,
              'from@example.com',
              [user.email])
        # and this follow up email in one hour
        msg = 'Here are some tips to get you started...'
        schedule('django.core.mail.send_mail',
                 'Follow up',
                 msg,
                 'from@example.com',
                 [user.email],
                 schedule_type=Schedule.ONCE,
                 next_run=timezone.now() + timedelta(hours=1))

        # since the `repeats` defaults to -1
        # this schedule will erase itself after having run


Since you're only telling Django Q to take care of the emails, you can quickly move on to serving web pages to your user.

Signals
=======

A good place to use async tasks are Django's model signals. You don't want to delay the saving or creation of objects, but sometimes you want to trigger a lot of actions:

.. code-block:: python

    # Message on object change
    from django.contrib.auth.models import User
    from django.db.models.signals import pre_save
    from django.dispatch import receiver
    from django_q import async

    # set up the pre_save signal for our user
    @receiver(pre_save, sender=User)
    def email_changed(sender, instance, **kwargs):
        try:
            user = sender.objects.get(pk=instance.pk)
        except sender.DoesNotExist:
            pass  # new user
        else:
            # has his email changed?
            if not user.email == instance.email:
                # tell everyone
                async('tasks.inform_everyone', instance)

The task will send a message to everyone else informing them that the users email address has changed. Note that this adds almost no overhead to the save action:

.. code-block:: python

    # tasks.py
    def inform_everyone(user):
        mails = []
        for u in User.objects.exclude(pk=user.pk):
            msg = 'Dear {}, {} has a new email address: {}'
            msg = msg.format(u.username, user.username, user.email)
            mails.append(('New email', msg,
                          'from@example.com', [u.email]))
        return send_mass_mail(mails)

.. code-block:: python

    # or do it async again
    def inform_everyone_async(user):
        for u in User.objects.exclude(pk=user.pk):
            msg = 'Dear {}, {} has a new email address: {}'
            msg = msg.format(u.username, user.username, user.email)
            async('django.core.mail.send_mail',
                  'New email', msg, 'from@example.com', [u.email])


Of course you can do other things beside sending emails. These are just generic examples. You can use signals with async to update fields in other objects too.
Let's say this users email address is not just on the User object, but you stored it in some other places too without a reference.
By attaching an async action to the save signal, you can now update that email address in those other places without impacting the the time it takes to return your views.


Reports
=======

In this example the user requests a report and we let the cluster do the generating, while handling the result with a hook.

.. code-block:: python

    # Report generation with hook example
    from django_q import async

    # views.py
    # user requests a report.
    def create_report(request):
        async('tasks.create_html_report',
              request.user,
              hook='tasks.email_report')

    # tasks.py
    # report generator
    def create_html_report(user):
        html_report = 'We had a great quarter!'
        return html_report

    # report mailer
    def email_report(task):
        if task.success:
            # Email the report
            async('django.core.mail.send_mail',
                  'The report you requested',
                  task.result,
                  'from@example.com',
                  task.args[0].email)
        else:
            # Tell the admins something went wrong
            async('django.core.mail.mail_admins',
                  'Report generation failed',
                  task.result)


The hook is practical here, cause it allows us to detach the sending task from the report generation function and to report on possible failures.

.. note::

    If you have an example you want to share, please submit a pull request on `github <https://github.com/Koed00/django-q/>`__.