Immediacy Management Console Scheduled Tasks are useful for running tasks that need to occur automatically on a frequent basis which are independent of website visitor actions.
These scheduled tasks have the advantage of being able to hook up to the Immediacy API, allowing developers to perform tasks on Immediacy pages etc.
Scheduled tasks can have public properties if required, which are entered via a Plug-in Settings dialog box.
Plug-in Development
Immediacy Management Console plug-ins are simply a .NET class library. The project should contain a C# or VB.NET file containing the plug-in and a separate class which defines the Plug-in Settings dialog.
The plug-in class needs to reference the following Immediacy namespaces.
Immediacy.Configuration;
Immediacy.Service.Interfaces;
Your plug-in class needs to inherit from:
Immediacy.Service.Interfaces.Plugin
And your class needs to have a few class attributes for Immediacy (CMC) to recognise your plug-in:
[SettingsControlTypeAttribute(typeof(SiteMapSettings))]
[GuidAttribute("XXXX8D90-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-A3341127XXXX")]
[PluginDetailsType("Name of Plug-in", "Description")]
Your plug-in class constructor needs to pass the settings to the base class as follows:
public Sitemap(ImcFile imcFile, StringDictionary settings) : base(imcFile, settings) { }
To build your plug-in you need to override the Execute() method and put your code in here.
Plug-in Settings Dialog Development
The plug-in settings dialog is created by another class, which inherits from Immediacy.Service.Interfaces.SettingsControl
This class is essentially a Windows Form code file without the form designer, so you’ll need to import the System.Windows.Forms namespace.
You’ll need to add Windows.Forms Labels and TextBoxes to the dialog box to capture the public properties from the user who configures the plug-in while scheduling it.
Implement the abstract class like the example below:
namespace ImmPlugins.Sitemap
{
public class SettingTest : Immediacy.Service.Interfaces.SettingsControl
{
private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox txtUrl;
private System.Windows.Forms.Label lblUrl;
private System.ComponentModel.Container components = null;
public SiteMapSettings(Type pluginType)
: base(pluginType)
{
InitializeComponent();
}
public override System.Collections.Specialized.StringDictionary Settings
{
get
{
StringDictionary retVal = new StringDictionary();
retVal.Add("url", txtUrl.Text);
return retVal;
}
set
{
txtUrl.Text = (string)value["url"];
}
}
public override bool SettingsAreValid
{
get {
if (txtUrl.Text == “”)
{
return false;
}
else
{
return true;
}
}
}
public override string SettingsAreValidVerbose
{
get {
string errorText = string.Empty;
if (txtUrl.Text == "")
{
errorText += "Please specify a URL \r\n";
}
return errorText;
}
}
private void InitializeComponent()
{
this.lblUrl = new System.Windows.Forms.Label();
this.txtUrl = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox();
this.txtUrl.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(202, 59);
this.txtUrl.Name = "txtUrl";
this.txtUrl.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(160, 20);
this.txtUrl.TabIndex = 2;
this.lblUrl.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(8, 59);
this.lblUrl.Name = "lblUrl";
this.lblUrl.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(188, 16);
this.lblUrl.TabIndex = 1;
this.lblUrl.Text = "URL:";
this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(374, 183);
this.Controls.Add(this.lblUrl);
this.Controls.Add(this.txtUrl);
this.Name = "PluginSettings";
this.ResumeLayout(false);
this.PerformLayout();
}
protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
{
if (disposing)
{
if (components != null)
{
components.Dispose();
}
}
base.Dispose(disposing);
}
}
}
Plug-in Installation
Immediacy Management Console plug-ins are installed in the Immediacy CMS folder path.
Simply compile your .NET class library to a DLL and copy it to this directory.
e.g. C:\Program Files\Immediacy\CMS\6.1\Service\Plugins
(Note: This path maybe slightly different on your installation depending on Immediacy version, drive path etc)
If all has gone well your plug-in should show up in the list of tasks which can be scheduled in the Immediacy Management Console.
