Scheduled tasks are executed by a long running Python task that finds and executes task from the 'background_task' Postgres table.
To start automatic task execution on your personal computer: In a terminal window, type python manage.py process_tasks
and leave that process going indefinitely while testing. On the AWS master server, this same command needs to be run as a cron job (or equivalent) that starts up the process at reboot.
The Scheduled Task screen in the server Admin app.
Clicking on one of the number id buttons on the left under Scheduled Tasks, allows you to view more details about a
scheduled task, and to use that setup as a basis of a new task via the 'Save as a new task' button, or delete the task
with the 'Delete' button.
Tasks are created from scratch via the 'Create a Task' button.
The Task Name is required, but you can put any description you want in the field.
The Task Parameters, is the actual task that you want to run at some future time. If the text in this field begins with
http:// or https:// the server will make a get request for that URL and the output will get piped into a django sql
table that can be read with the Output button.
The Priority field can be left at 1
The Run at field determines the first time, and time of day that you want the task to run at.
The Repeat field allows you to choose one of: hourly, daily, weekly, two weekly, or four weekly, repeat intervals.
The Repeat Until specifies a date and time at which the task will be disabled. It defaults to a year in the future, but you can set it to as far in the future as you would like.
