resque - background jobs on Redis

Import with import "resque.j" as resque;. Schedule background jobs onto named queues now and process them from a worker later, over the redis module. Deliberately Resque wire-compatible: queues are Redis lists at resque:queue:NAME, the queue registry is a set at resque:queues, and a job is the JSON envelope {"class":"WorkerName","args":[...]}. Because that layout is the de-facto Resque standard, a job Jennifer enqueues can be processed by a Ruby-resque / php-resque worker and vice versa. Built on redis (which uses net), so this module needs the default jennifer binary.

On jennifer-tiny: “needs the default jennifer binary” refers to the stock tiny build, which ships without a network driver - not a TinyGo limitation. A jennifer-tiny rebuilt with a network stack runs this module too; see the note on net and TinyGo.

import "resque.j" as resque;
import "redis.j" as redis;

def db as redis.Session init redis.connect(redis.Options{host: "127.0.0.1",
    port: 6379, security: "none", user: "", password: "", db: 0});

# producer: schedule a job
resque.enqueue($db, "email", "SendWelcome", ["user@example.com", "en"]);

Runnable: examples/modules/resque_demo.j.

Surface

The module works over an existing redis.Session - it adds no transport of its own.

args is a list of string - it maps to Ruby-resque’s positional arguments (perform(a, b)). A job enqueued elsewhere with a numeric or boolean arg still reserves cleanly (each arg is read back as its string form).

Producer and worker

The producer is one call. The worker is your loop: reserve, then dispatch on the class string. A Jennifer module can’t call a method by a name computed at runtime, so the module hands you the decoded Job and you branch - the same class-lookup a Ruby worker does under the hood:

use io;
import "resque.j" as resque;

def db as redis.Session init resque... ;   # a redis.Session
while (true) {
    def job as resque.Job init resque.reserve($db, ["high", "email"]);
    if (len($job.class) == 0) {
        # every queue drained; sleep and poll again (blocking BLPOP is a later add)
        break;
    }
    try {
        if ($job.class == "SendWelcome") {
            io.printf("welcome -> %s\n", $job.args[0]);
        } elseif ($job.class == "Ping") {
            io.printf("pong\n");
        } else {
            resque.fail($db, $job, "unknown class");
        }
    } catch (e) {
        resque.fail($db, $job, $e.message);
    }
}

reserve checks the queues in the order you pass, so put higher-priority queue names first. Within one queue jobs are FIFO.

Compatibility notes

Two behaviours are inherent to Resque, not added here:

• The class is resolved on the worker’s side. enqueue only ships the string; the runtime that pops the job must define a job by that name. So a Ruby worker runs a Jennifer-enqueued job only when its codebase has that class.
• The namespace must match. Keys use the resque: prefix (the Resque default); both ends must agree.

For the php-resque ecosystem, args follow a single-hash convention (args: [{...}], plus id / queue_time envelope fields) rather than Ruby’s positional array; this module emits the positional Ruby form.

Out of scope

Basics first - these are deferred to a later pass:

• Blocking reserve. reserve polls; a BLPOP-based blocking wait (so a worker sleeps instead of spinning) is a later add.
• Full Resque failure records. fail writes a simplified entry, not the complete failed_at / exception / backtrace / worker shape.
• Scheduled / delayed jobs and retries.
• A configurable namespace (fixed to resque:).

See also

• redis.md - the client this module runs on.
• json.md - the envelope encode / decode.
• modules/index.md - the module catalog and import rules.