Getting Started

This guide will walk you through installing and configuring Sails Quest in your Sails.js application.

Prerequisites

• A Sails.js application (v1.x or higher)
• Node.js 12+

Installation

Install Sails Quest using npm:

npm install sails-hook-quest

That's it! Sails will automatically load the hook when your app lifts.

Your First Scheduled Job

1. Create a Script

Create a new script in your scripts/ directory:

// scripts/hello-world.js
module.exports = {
  friendlyName: 'Hello World',
  description: 'A simple job that logs a greeting',

  // Add Quest scheduling configuration
  quest: {
    interval: '30 seconds' // Run every 30 seconds
  },

  fn: async function () {
    sails.log('Hello from Quest! The time is:', new Date().toISOString())

    // You have full access to Sails here
    // const users = await User.count()
    // console.log(`Total users: ${users}`)

    return { success: true }
  }
}

2. Lift Your App

sails lift

You should see your job start running every 30 seconds:

info: Initializing Quest job scheduler
info: Quest started with 1 scheduled job(s)
...
Hello from Quest! The time is: 2024-01-01T10:00:00.000Z

Configuration

Create a config/quest.js file to customize Quest:

// config/quest.js
module.exports.quest = {
  // Auto-start jobs when Sails lifts
  autoStart: true,

  // Timezone for cron expressions
  timezone: 'America/New_York',

  // Run jobs in console environment for better performance
  environment: 'console',

  // Prevent jobs from overlapping by default
  withoutOverlapping: true
}

Console Environment

For better performance, create a minimal environment for jobs:

// config/env/console.js
module.exports = {
  hooks: {
    // Disable unnecessary hooks for jobs
    views: false,
    sockets: false,
    pubsub: false,
    shipwright: false
  }
}

Next Steps

• Learn about scheduling options
• Explore job management
• Set up monitoring with events
• See real-world examples