Hangfire.Community.JobsLauncher.Dashboard 2.0.2

Hangfire.Community.JobsLauncher.Dashboard

A Hangfire Dashboard extension that fills the gap between scheduled automation and ad‑hoc operations. It was born from the need to launch jobs on demand without redeploying and to keep a permanent, searchable audit trail of those manual interventions.

✨ Highlights

🔧 Recent Enhancements

• Scalable storage: history and audit log are stored in Hangfire’s native List data structure, permitting efficient trimming and pagination without ever loading the entire collection when using a supported storage (SQL Server, Redis, etc.).
• Pagination on both history and audit tabs, with configurable page size and prev/next navigation.
• Audit filters: search by user, UTC date range and page size; dates are parsed once for performance.
• Recurring engine per launch: in assisted mode you can choose Direct, Built‑In or DynamicJobs; in manual mode Built‑In or DynamicJobs. The backend automatically builds the correct expression or dynamic job.
• Queue awareness: all non‑recurring jobs are now enqueued to the chosen queue using the BackgroundJobClient.
• Multiple bug fixes and robustness improvements across the launcher, history and audit APIs.

📸 Screenshots

Launch Tab (Assisted & Manual)

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History & Templates

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📦 Requirements

• Hangfire 1.8.0 or later
• .NET Standard 2.0 (compatible with .NET Core 2.1+ and .NET Framework 4.6.1+)
• Common library Hangfire.Community.JobsLauncher.Common (required only on workers if manual mode is going to be used)
• Bootstrap 3 and jQuery (already included in the Hangfire dashboard)
• [Optional] Hangfire.DynamicJobs if you want to use the advanced recurring engine

📥 Installation

1. Dashboard

Add the NuGet package to the project where you configure the dashboard:

dotnet add package Hangfire.Community.JobsLauncher.Dashboard

2. Workers (only if you launch jobs in manual mode)

Install the common library in the worker projects that will execute manually launched jobs:

dotnet add package Hangfire.Community.JobsLauncher.Common

During worker startup, add this line to avoid "unused package" warnings and clearly document the intent:

Hangfire.Community.JobsLauncher.Common.JobLauncherDispatcher.EnableDynamicJobSupport();

Workers do not need the common library if you only use assisted mode (with assemblies available) or never run manual jobs.

⚙️ Configuration

In the method where you set up Hangfire (e.g., Startup.cs), add:

GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.UseJobLauncher(new JobLauncherOptions
{
 CriticalQueues = new List<string> { "production", "critical" },
 HistoryMaxEntries = 50,
 EnableAuditLog = true,
 InheritTheme = true
});

Setup for ASP.NET Core

using Hangfire;
using Hangfire.Community.JobsLauncher.Dashboard;

namespace Application
{
 public class Startup
 {
 public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
 {
 services.AddHangfire(configuration =>
 {
 configuration
 .UseMemoryStorage() // or your storage
 .UseJobLauncher(); // Add the Jobs launcher page
 });

 services.AddHangfireServer();
 }
 }
}

Setup for ASP.NET (.NET Framework)

using Hangfire;
using Hangfire.Community.JobsLauncher.Dashboard;

namespace Application
{
 public class Startup
 {
 public void Configuration(IAppBuilder app)
 {
 GlobalConfiguration.Configuration
 .UseJobLauncher(); // Add the Jobs launcher page

 app.UseHangfireDashboard();
 }
 }
}

Register the dashboard in your application:

app.UseHangfireDashboard("/hangfire", new DashboardOptions
{
 // ... your authorization configuration, etc.
});

The plugin automatically appears as a new "Job Launcher" tab in the navigation menu.

🚀 Usage

Launch Tab

1. Assisted mode (requires the class to be available in the AppDomain):

   • Enter the full class name (Namespace.ClassName) and click Load Methods.
   • Pick a method from the list.
   • Fill in the parameters: suitable inputs are generated for simple types (numbers, dates, text), and a JSON editor for complex types.
   • Choose the execution mode: Fire & Forget, Schedule, Recurring, Continuation.
   • Specify the queue (with autocomplete from known queues).
   • Optionally, check PerformContext or CancellationToken.
   • Click Launch Job. If the queue is critical, an additional confirmation will be required.

2. Manual mode (without access to the assembly):

   • Manually enter the class name, method, and a JSON payload.
   • Validate and format the JSON using the provided buttons.
   • The rest of the process is identical to assisted mode.
   • For recurring jobs, a dropdown lets you choose between the Built‑in engine (lightweight) and DynamicJobs (if installed).

History Tab

• Shows the last launches (up to HistoryMaxEntries).
• Each entry offers:
  • Relaunch: loads the job parameters into the Launch form.
  • Clone & Launch: creates and enqueues an identical copy without modifying the form.
• The Clear history button deletes the volatile history (it does not affect the audit log).

Templates Tab

• Save the current form configuration as a named template.
• Load a template to prefill the form.
• Delete templates you no longer need.
• Export a single template as a JSON file.
• Import a template from a JSON file (prompting if the name already exists).

🧱 Internal Architecture

Execution duality

• If the business class is available in the dashboard, a DirectJobInvoker enqueues the job directly with real types (no dispatcher involved). The worker only needs the business assembly.
• If the class is not available, JobLauncherDispatcher.ExecuteJob(...) is used, receiving the class name, method, and serialized parameters as JSON. The dispatcher performs the reflection on the worker. The worker requires the common library.

🔒 Security

• Critical queues can be configured to require explicit confirmation before a job is launched.
• The dashboard inherits the authorization configured in DashboardOptions.
• Optionally, assisted mode type discovery can be restricted to allowed assembly prefixes.

📄 License

This project is distributed under the MIT License. See the file for details.

🤝 Contributing

All contributions are welcome. Please open an issue or pull request in the official repository.