Overview

Cronicle is a multi-server task scheduler and runner, with a web based front-end UI. It handles both scheduled, repeating and on-demand jobs, targeting any number of worker servers, with real-time stats and live log viewer. It's basically a fancy Cron replacement written in Node.js. You can give it simple shell commands, or write Plugins in virtually any language.

Features at a Glance

• Single or multi-server setup.
• Automated failover to backup servers.
• Auto-discovery of nearby servers.
• Real-time job status with live log viewer.
• Plugins can be written in any language.
• Schedule events in multiple timezones.
• Optionally queue up long-running events.
• Track CPU and memory usage for each job.
• Historical stats with performance graphs.
• Simple JSON messaging system for Plugins.
• Web hooks for external notification systems.
• Simple REST API for scheduling and running events.
• API Keys for authenticating remote apps.

Documentation

The Cronicle documentation is split up across these files:

• → Installation & Setup
• → Configuration
• → Setup
• → Web UI
• → Plugins
• → Command Line
• → Inner Workings
• → API Reference
• → Development

Glossary

A quick introduction to some common terms used in Cronicle:

Term	Description
Primary Server	The primary server which keeps time and runs the scheduler, assigning jobs to other servers, and/or itself.
Backup Server	A worker server which will automatically become primary and take over duties if the current primary dies.
Worker Server	A server which sits idle until it is assigned jobs by the primary server.
Server Group	A named group of servers which can be targeted by events, and tagged as "primary eligible", or "worker only".
API Key	A special key that can be used by external apps to send API requests into Cronicle. Remotely trigger jobs, etc.
User	A human user account, which has a username and a password. Passwords are salted and hashed with bcrypt.
Plugin	Any executable script in any language, which runs a job and reads/writes JSON to communicate with Cronicle.
Schedule	The list of events, which are scheduled to run at particular times, on particular servers.
Category	Events can be assigned to categories which define defaults and optionally a color highlight in the UI.
Event	An entry in the schedule, which may run once or many times at any interval. Each event points to a Plugin, and a server or group to run it.
Job	A running instance of an event. If an event is set to run hourly, then a new job will be created every hour.

Colophon

We stand on the shoulders of giants. Cronicle was built using these awesome Node modules:

Module Name	Description	License
async	Higher-order functions and common patterns for asynchronous code.	MIT
bcrypt-node	Native JS implementation of BCrypt for Node.	BSD 3-Clause
chart.js	Simple HTML5 charts using the canvas element.	MIT
daemon	Add-on for creating *nix daemons.	MIT
errno	Node.js libuv errno details exposed.	MIT
font-awesome	The iconic font and CSS framework.	OFL-1.1 and MIT
form-data	A library to create readable "multipart/form-data" streams. Can be used to submit forms and file uploads to other web applications.	MIT
formidable	A Node.js module for parsing form data, especially file uploads.	MIT
glob	Filesystem globber (*.js).	ISC
jstimezonedetect	Automatically detects the client or server timezone.	MIT
jquery	JavaScript library for DOM operations.	MIT
mdi	Material Design Webfont. This includes the Stock and Community icons in a single webfont collection.	OFL-1.1 and MIT
mkdirp	Recursively mkdir, like mkdir -p.	MIT
moment	Parse, validate, manipulate, and display dates.	MIT
moment-timezone	Parse and display moments in any timezone.	MIT
netmask	Parses and understands IPv4 CIDR blocks so they can be explored and compared.	MIT
node-static	A simple, compliant file streaming module for node.	MIT
nodemailer	Easy as cake e-mail sending from your Node.js applications.	MIT
shell-quote	Quote and parse shell commands.	MIT
socket.io	Node.js real-time framework server (Websockets).	MIT
socket.io-client	Client library for server-to-server socket.io connections.	MIT
uglify-js	JavaScript parser, mangler/compressor and beautifier toolkit.	BSD-2-Clause
zxcvbn	Realistic password strength estimation, from Dropbox.	MIT

Companies Using Cronicle

Cronicle is known to be in use by the following companies:

• Agnes & Dora
• Sling TV

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2015 - 2023 Joseph Huckaby

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.