Become a Rails Background Job Pro: Replicating Active Jobs with Pure Ruby
What?
Background jobs are processes that operate in the background of a web application, independent of the primary user interface and request/response cycle. It permits you to execute lengthy or resource-intensive duties asynchronously, without obstructing the main thread or affecting the user experience.
In a typical web application, the user sends a request to the server, and the server processes the request and returns a response. This process usually takes a few milliseconds to a few seconds, depending on the complexity of the request and the load on the server.
Some requests, such as generating PDF reports, sending email notifications, or processing lots of data, may require additional time and resources. If these duties are conducted synchronously, the server may become unresponsive or time out, degrading the user experience. Background jobs enable you to delegate these tasks to a separate process that operates in the background, independent of the request/response cycle, to avoid these issues. Consequently, the user can continue to interact with the application while the task is executing, and the server can manage more requests concurrently.
Typically, a job queue system manages background tasks by controlling the execution order and ensuring that each job is executed only once. Typically, the job queue system provides a simple interface for enqueuing jobs and a worker process that dequeues and executes jobs in the background.
The most prominent job queue system in the Ruby on Rails framework is Active Job, which offers a simple and unified interface for enqueuing jobs and supports multiple backends, including Sidekiq, Resque, DelayedJob, and others.
Why?
Background jobs are an important tool for improving the performance and scalability of web applications, allowing you to manage lengthy or resource-intensive tasks independently of the request/response cycle in the background.
Improve user experience
Improve the user experience by minimizing the amount of time it takes to process a request and deliver a response to the user. The server is able to react rapidly to user requests when…
