Job creation and queuing in Ruby on Rails

Introduction

Job creation and queuing lets your app do tasks in the background. This keeps your app fast and smooth for users.

Sending emails after a user signs up without making them wait

Processing uploaded images or files without slowing the app

Running long calculations or reports without freezing the page

Cleaning up old data regularly without interrupting users

Calling external services that might be slow or unreliable

Syntax

Ruby on Rails

class MyJob < ApplicationJob
  queue_as :default

  def perform(*args)
    # Do the work here
  end
end

# To enqueue the job:
MyJob.perform_later(arguments)

Jobs are Ruby classes that inherit from ApplicationJob.

Use perform_later to add the job to the queue.

Examples

This job sends a welcome email to a user with ID 42 in the background.

Ruby on Rails

class EmailJob < ApplicationJob
  queue_as :mailers

  def perform(user_id)
    user = User.find(user_id)
    UserMailer.welcome_email(user).deliver_now
  end
end

EmailJob.perform_later(42)

This job deletes old records without blocking the app.

Ruby on Rails

class CleanupJob < ApplicationJob
  queue_as :default

  def perform
    OldRecord.where('created_at < ?', 1.month.ago).delete_all
  end
end

CleanupJob.perform_later

Sample Program

This job prints a greeting message in the background. When run, it will output the greeting without blocking the main app.

Ruby on Rails

class GreetingJob < ApplicationJob
  queue_as :default

  def perform(name)
    puts "Hello, #{name}!"
  end
end

# Enqueue the job
GreetingJob.perform_later('Alice')

Important Notes

Make sure you have a queue adapter set up (like Sidekiq or the default async adapter) to run jobs.

Jobs run outside the main web request, so they won't slow down user actions.

You can set different queues to prioritize important jobs.

Summary

Jobs let you run tasks in the background to keep your app fast.

Create jobs by inheriting from ApplicationJob and defining a perform method.

Use perform_later to add jobs to the queue for later execution.