TickerQ EF Core

Installation

TickerQ.EntityFrameworkCore is a package that extends the functionality of TickerQ.

You can install it with:

.NET CLI

> dotnet add package TickerQ.EntityFrameworkCore

Package Manager

PM> NuGet\Install-Package TickerQ.EntityFrameworkCore

Package Reference

<PackageReference Include="TickerQ.EntityFrameworkCore" Version="*" />

Configure Options

Add options in TickerQ.

using TickerQ.DependencyInjection;
using TickerQ.EntityFrameworkCore.DependencyInjection;
....

services.AddTickerQ(opt =>
{
   // Set fallback time out to check for missed jobs and execute.
  opt.UpdateMissedJobCheckDelay(timeSpan: ...);
  // Set name of instance, default is Environment.MachineName.
  opt.SetInstanceIdentifier(identifierName: ...)
  ....

   // Configure the EF Core–backed operational store for TickerQ metadata, locks, and state.
    options.AddOperationalStore<MyDbContext>(efOpt =>
    {                                                                      
        // Apply custom model configuration only during EF Core migrations
        // (design-time). The runtime model remains unaffected.
        efOpt.UseModelCustomizerForMigrations();                                                

        // On app start, cancel tickers left in Expired or InProgress (terminated) states
        // to prevent duplicate re-execution after crashes or abrupt shutdowns.
        efOpt.CancelMissedTickersOnAppStart(ReleaseAcquiredTermination.CancelExpired);          

        // Defined cron-based functions are auto-seeded in the database by default.
        // Example: [TickerFunction(..., "*/5 * * * *")]
        // Use this to ignore them and keep seeds runtime-only.
        ef.IgnoreSeedMemoryCronTickers();                                           

        // Seed initial tickers (time-based and cron-based).
        ef.UseTickerSeeder(                                                               
            async timeTicker =>
            {                                                                             
                await timeTicker.AddAsync(new TimeTicker
                {                                                                         
                    Id = Guid.NewGuid(),                                                  
                    Function = "CleanupLogs",                                             
                    ExecutionTime = DateTime.UtcNow.AddSeconds(5),                        
                });                                                                       
            },                                                                            
            async cronTicker =>
            {                                                                             
                await cronTicker.AddAsync(new CronTicker
                {                                                                         
                    Id = Guid.NewGuid(),                                                  
                    Expression = "0 0 * * *", // every day at 00:00 UTC
                    Function = "CleanupLogs"
                });                                                                       
        });                                                                               
    });                                                                                   
});

❗️If Not Using UseModelCustomizerForMigrations()

You must apply TickerQ configurations manually in your DbContext:

public class MyDbContext : DbContext
{
    public MyDbContext(DbContextOptions<MyDbContext> options)
        : base(options) { }

    protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder builder)
    {
        base.OnModelCreating(builder);

        // Apply TickerQ entity configurations explicitly
        // Default Schema is "ticker".
        builder.ApplyConfiguration(new TimeTickerConfigurations(schema: ... ));  
        builder.ApplyConfiguration(new CronTickerConfigurations(schema: ...)); 
        builder.ApplyConfiguration(new CronTickerOccurrenceConfigurations(schema: ...)); 

        // Alternatively, apply all configurations from assembly:
        // builder.ApplyConfigurationsFromAssembly(typeof(TimeTickerConfigurations).Assembly);
    }
}

💡 Recommendation:
Use UseModelCustomizerForMigrations() to cleanly separate infrastructure concerns from your core domain model, especially during design-time operations like migrations.
Note: If you're using third-party libraries (e.g., OpenIddict) that also override IModelCustomizer, you must either merge customizations or fall back to manual configuration inside OnModelCreating() to avoid conflicts.

Add Migrations

Migrations would be created for Context that is declared at AddOperationalStore.

PM> add-migration "TickerQInitialCreate" -c MyDbContext