Milind Daraniya

In this post, we'll explore how you can schedule tasks in your Laravel applications using the built-in Laravel Scheduler. The Laravel Scheduler allows you to define commands or closures that should run at specified intervals, leveraging the power of cron jobs. Let's dive in with a simple example!

👉 Step 1: Define the Task 
First, identify the task you want to schedule. It could be running a specific command, executing a closure, or triggering an artisan command. For this example, let's assume we have a SendEmails command that we want to run every day at 8 AM.

👉 Step 2: Create the Laravel Command 
Create the Laravel command using the following command:

php artisan make:command SendEmails

This will generate a SendEmails command file in the app/Console/Commands directory.

👉 Step 3: Define the Command Logic 
Open the generated SendEmails command file and define the logic for sending emails. For example:

use Illuminate\Console\Command;

class SendEmails extends Command
{
    protected $signature = 'send:emails';

    protected $description = 'Send daily emails';

    public function handle()
    {
        // Your email sending logic here
        $this->info('Emails sent successfully!');
    }
}

👉 Step 4: Configure the Scheduler 
Open the app/Console/Kernel.php file and locate the schedule method. Inside this method, you can define your scheduled tasks using the ->command, ->exec, or ->call methods. In our example, we'll use the ->command method:

use App\Console\Commands\SendEmails;
use Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Schedule;

protected function schedule(Schedule $schedule)
{
    $schedule->command(SendEmails::class)->dailyAt('08:00');
}

💡 In the above example, we use the ->command method to schedule the SendEmails command to run daily at 8 AM. You can adjust the schedule frequency and time as per your requirements.

👉 Step 5: Register the Scheduler in Cron 
To enable Laravel's Scheduler, you need to add the following Cron entry to your server's task scheduler:

* * * * * cd /path-to-your-project && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

This Cron entry will execute the Laravel Scheduler every minute.

👉 Step 6: Run the Scheduler 
To start the Laravel Scheduler, run the following command in your terminal:

php artisan schedule:run

This command will check your scheduled tasks and run them if they are due.