What's New in V1.1

• Project upgraded to Visual Studio .NET 2003 and .NET Framework 1.1
• Format of the licensing key was changed
• Memory leak problems solved - Task Scheduler now requires much less memory than in version 1.0
• New field added: TS_Task.TaskScheduledStatus. It's used to execute scheduled tasks correctly
• Names of application and session variables were changed so that they aren't in conflict with Secure Access: application("RM") to application("TSRM") and session("ARCulture") to session("TSCulture")
• Known bugs were fixed

PortSight Task Scheduler allows you to schedule and execute tasks on the server from your ASP.NET applications. It can be used for several purposes:

Scheduling and Execution of Tasks on the Server

You can schedule tasks that will be run only once or repeatedly. You can choose date and time, as well as days of week and recurring period

Asynchronous Execution of Long-running Tasks

You can avoid server script time-outs by running tasks asynchronously to your ASP.NET page. When you use the included TaskRunner control, the user gets a pop-up window that displays task progress, which also greatly improves the user experience

Serialization of Tasks that Access Shared Resources

Serialization allows you to create a virtual queue and process the tasks in the FIFO (First In First Out) order. It improves the robustness of your Web site and ensures that all tasks will be finished. It helps you avoid locks in file system or in the database

Execute Server-side Utilities and Commands under a Privileged Account

You can execute tasks under the administrator (or some other) account – you can execute backup and server management utilities from your ASP.NET applications without granting special permissions to common users

Architecture

PortSight Task Scheduler is written as a three-tier .NET application. You can use its application programming interface (API) to schedule and run tasks from any .NET application.

It uses Microsoft SQL Server (or MSDE) to store information about tasks.

The tasks are executed by PortSight Task Scheduler Windows Service. It ensures two main features:

• Immediate asynchronous task execution upon request
• Execution of scheduled tasks at specified time

You can manage the PortSight Task Scheduler system using its Web interface that is delivered with source code and can be easily modified.

Using PortSight Task Scheduler, you can run any type of applications and commands on your server:

• Command line utilities, BAT or EXE programs (e.g. restarting Windows services or regular copying of files)
• SQL scripts (e.g. daily report generation)
• Sending e-mails (you can schedule sending of newsletters or send thousands of e-mails at one click from your ASP.NET page)
• Request and download pages or files from Web sites (e.g. regular data file download and extraction or regular calling of your management scripts)
• Third-party components – such as report generation components that create very large reports which may take tens of minutes

You can also create your own components that will be run by PortSight Task Scheduler.