TickerQ

Robust. Adaptive. Precise.
TickerQ is a high-performance, modular background job scheduler for .NET applications. It supports cron-based and one-time jobs, integrates with Entity Framework Core for persistence, and offers a live dashboard UI powered by SignalR.

📚 Full Docs

👉 https://tickerq.arcenox.com

Dashboard:

✨ Features

• Time and Cron Scheduling
• Stateless Core with source generator
• EF Core Persistence (optional)
• Live Dashboard UI
• Retry Policies & Throttling
• Dependency Injection support
• Multi-node distributed coordination

📦 Installation

Core (required)

dotnet add package TickerQ

Entity Framework Integration (optional)

dotnet add package TickerQ.EntityFrameworkCore

Dashboard UI (optional)

dotnet add package TickerQ.Dashboard

⚙️ Basic Setup

In Program.cs or Startup.cs

builder.Services.AddTickerQ(options =>
{
    options.SetMaxConcurrency(4); // Optional
    options.SetExceptionHandler<MyExceptionHandler>(); // Optional
    options.AddOperationalStore<MyDbContext>(); // Enables EF-backed storage
    options.CancelMissedTickersOnApplicationRestart(); // Useful in distributed mode
    options.AddDashboard(basePath: "/tickerq-dashboard"); // Dashboard path
    options.AddDashboardBasicAuth(); // Enables simple auth
});

app.UseTickerQ();             // Activates job processor

Job Definition

1. Cron Job (Recurring)

public class CleanupJobs
{
    [TickerFunction(FunctionName = "CleanupLogs", CronExpression = "0 0 * * *")]
    public void CleanupLogs()
    {
        // Runs every midnight
    }
}

This uses a cron expression to run daily at midnight.

2. One-Time Job (TimeTicker)

public class NotificationJobs
{
    [TickerFunction(FunctionName = "SendWelcome")]
    public Task SendWelcome(TickerFunctionContext<string> tickerContext ,CancellationToken ct)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(tickerContext.Request); // Output: User123
        return Task.CompletedTask;
    }
}

Then schedule it:

await _timeTickerManager.AddAsync(new TimeTicker
{
    Function = "SendWelcome",
    ExecutionTime = DateTime.UtcNow.AddMinutes(1),
    Request = TickerHelper.CreateTickerRequest<string>("User123"),
    Retries = 3,
    RetryIntervals = new[] { 30, 60, 120 } // Retry after 30s, 60s, then 2min
});

3. Injecting Services in Jobs (Fully DI Support)

public class ReportJobs
{
    private readonly IReportService _reportService;

    public ReportJobs(IReportService reportService)
    {
        _reportService = reportService;
    }

    [TickerFunction(FunctionName = "GenerateDailyReport", CronExpression = "0 6 * * *")]
    public async Task GenerateDailyReport()
    {
        await _reportService.GenerateAsync();
    }
}

Dashboard UI

Enabled by adding:

options.AddDashboard(basePath: "/tickerq-dashboard");
options.AddDashboardBasicAuth(); // Optional

Accessible at /tickerq-dashboard, it shows:

• System status
• Active tickers
• Job queue state
• Cron ticker stats
• Execution history
• Trigger/cancel/edit jobs live

Auth config (optional):

"TickerQBasicAuth": {
  "Username": "admin",
  "Password": "admin"
}

TickerQ vs Hangfire vs Quartz.NET

| Feature | TickerQ | Hangfire | Quartz.NET | |--------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|-----------------------------------|-------------------------------------| | Cron scheduling | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | | Time-based one-time jobs | ✅ Yes (TimeTicker) | ⚠️ Simulated via delay | ✅ Yes | | Persistent job store | ✅ With EF Core | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | | In-memory mode | ✅ Built-in | ✅ Built-in | ✅ Built-in | | Retry/cooldown logic | ✅ Advanced & configurable | ⚠️ Basic retries only | ⚠️ Manual | | Dashboard UI | ✅ First-party + real-time | ✅ Basic | ⚠️ Third-party required | | DI support | ✅ Native and seamless | 🟠 Partial – type-based only | ⚠️ Requires extra config | | Reflection-free job discovery | ✅ Roslyn-based, compile-time | ❌ Uses reflection | ❌ Uses reflection | | Multi-node/distributed support | ✅ Native with EF Core | ⚠️ Depends on storage | ✅ Yes | | Custom tickers (plugin model) | ✅ Fully extensible | ❌ Not extensible | ⚠️ Limited | | Parallelism & concurrency control | ✅ Built-in scheduler threadpool | ✅ Queues/ServerCount | ✅ ThreadPools | | Performance under high load | ✅ Optimized, no overhead | ⚠️ Depends on storage/db | ⚠️ Thread blocking possible | | Async/await support | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Limited – wrapped sync methods| ✅ Yes | | CancellationToken support | ✅ Propagated & honored | ❌ Not natively supported | 🟠 Optional – must check manually |

🔐 Retry & Locking

TickerQ supports:

• Retries per job
• Retry intervals (RetryIntervals)
• Distributed locking (EF mode only)
• Job ownership tracking across instances
• Cooldown on job failure

🧪 Advanced: Manual CronTicker Scheduling

await _cronTickerManager.AddAsync(new CronTicker
{
    Function = "CleanupLogs",
    CronExpression = "0 */6 * * *", // Every 6 hours
    Retries = 2,
    RetryIntervals = new[] { 60, 300 }
});

🛠️ Developer Tips

• Use [TickerFunction] to register jobs
• Use FunctionName consistently across schedule and handler
• Use CancellationToken for graceful cancellation
• Use Request to pass dynamic data to jobs
• Use .AddDashboard() only when EF Core is configured

🤝 Contribution

PRs, ideas, and issues are welcome!

1. Fork & branch
2. Code your change
3. Submit a Pull Request

📄 License

MIT OR Apache 2.0 © Arcenox
You may choose either license to use this software.