Advanced Job Scheduler

Hourly jobs on the IBMi?

A lot of the backend projects I have been working on lately are pulling data from an API and inserting it into a database or emailing reports. A lot of these are related to EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) and e-commerce. I generally write a node application that is executed by a CL (command line) program and run it on the job scheduler. These programs need to run every hour or sometimes more in order for orders to be processed efficiently.

On the IBMi is the default Job Scheduler which is accessed via WRKJOBSCDE. It allows for an administrator to execute a command either daily, weekly or monthly.

This is a limited amount of options and in the past I have seen people do things like create multiple Scheduled entries or write a CL program to work around these limitations. I have a linux background, so I have always done this using a CRON job where you can specify intervals for recurring tasks.

Enter 5770-JS1 IBM's Advanced Job Scheduler

The advanced job scheduler is a licensed program that has been available since IBMi v7r2. The program is 5770-JS1 and can be installed, but you need a license to use it. It is separate from the original Job Scheduler and is accessible via WRKJOBJS or add a job as ADDJOBJS. The addjobjs screen has a lot of the same fields as the addjobscde screen. The big difference that helps me is being able to run jobs in intervals defined by minutes. I can now schedule my Node Applications to run hourly without any workarounds.