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Examples

Explore practical examples of how to use A1Cron for various automation scenarios.

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Daily Operations

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Daily Sales Report

Generate a PDF report every morning at 9 AM EST:

{
  "name": "Daily Sales Report",
  "description": "Generates comprehensive sales report for the previous day",
  "endpoint_url": "https://api.company.com/reports/daily-sales",
  "method": "POST",
  "headers": {
    "Authorization": "Bearer ${REPORT_API_KEY}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
  },
  "body": "{\"report_type\": \"sales\", \"format\": \"pdf\", \"date\": \"yesterday\"}",
  "timezone": "America/New_York",
  "schedule_config": {
    "repeat_type": "days",
    "repeat_every": 1,
    "time": "09:00",
    "end_type": "never"
  },
  "retry_config": {
    "max_retries": 3,
    "retry_delay_seconds": 300,
    "timeout_seconds": 120
  },
  "callbacks": {
    "success_url": "https://api.company.com/webhooks/report-generated",
    "failure_url": "https://api.company.com/webhooks/report-failed"
  },
  "tags": ["reports", "daily", "sales", "production"]
}

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Database Backup

Nightly database backup at 2 AM:

{
  "name": "Nightly Database Backup",
  "description": "Backup production database to S3",
  "endpoint_url": "https://api.company.com/operations/backup",
  "method": "POST",
  "headers": {
    "X-API-Key": "${BACKUP_API_KEY}"
  },
  "body": "{\"database\": \"production\", \"destination\": \"s3\", \"compression\": true}",
  "timezone": "UTC",
  "schedule_config": {
    "repeat_type": "days",
    "repeat_every": 1,
    "time": "02:00",
    "end_type": "never"
  },
  "retry_config": {
    "max_retries": 5,
    "retry_delay_seconds": 600,
    "timeout_seconds": 300
  },
  "callbacks": {
    "failure_url": "https://alerts.company.com/critical/backup-failed"
  },
  "tags": ["backup", "database", "critical"]
}

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Weekly Operations

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Weekly Team Summary

Send team performance summary every Monday at 8 AM:

{
  "name": "Weekly Team Performance",
  "description": "Email team performance metrics to managers",
  "endpoint_url": "https://api.company.com/reports/team-weekly",
  "method": "POST",
  "headers": {
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "Authorization": "Bearer ${REPORTS_TOKEN}"
  },
  "body": "{\"teams\": [\"sales\", \"support\", \"engineering\"], \"send_email\": true}",
  "timezone": "America/Chicago",
  "schedule_config": {
    "repeat_type": "weeks",
    "repeat_every": 1,
    "time": "08:00",
    "days_of_week": ["1"],
    "end_type": "never"
  },
  "tags": ["reports", "weekly", "management"]
}

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Weekday Data Sync

Sync data between systems every weekday at 6 PM:

{
  "name": "Weekday CRM Sync",
  "description": "Sync customer data from CRM to data warehouse",
  "endpoint_url": "https://api.company.com/sync/crm-to-warehouse",
  "method": "POST",
  "headers": {
    "X-Sync-Token": "${SYNC_TOKEN}"
  },
  "body": "{\"mode\": \"incremental\", \"since\": \"last_sync\"}",
  "timezone": "America/Los_Angeles",
  "schedule_config": {
    "repeat_type": "weeks",
    "repeat_every": 1,
    "time": "18:00",
    "days_of_week": ["1", "2", "3", "4", "5"],
    "end_type": "never"
  },
  "retry_config": {
    "max_retries": 3,
    "retry_delay_seconds": 900,
    "timeout_seconds": 180
  },
  "tags": ["sync", "crm", "data-warehouse"]
}

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Hourly Operations

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API Health Check

Monitor API availability every hour:

{
  "name": "Production API Health Check",
  "description": "Check if production API is responding",
  "endpoint_url": "https://api.company.com/health",
  "method": "GET",
  "timezone": "UTC",
  "schedule_config": {
    "repeat_type": "hourly",
    "repeat_every": 1,
    "time": "00:00",
    "end_type": "never"
  },
  "retry_config": {
    "max_retries": 2,
    "retry_delay_seconds": 30,
    "timeout_seconds": 10
  },
  "callbacks": {
    "failure_url": "https://alerts.pagerduty.com/webhook/api-down"
  },
  "tags": ["monitoring", "health", "critical"]
}

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Cache Refresh

Update cache every 2 hours:

{
  "name": "Product Cache Refresh",
  "description": "Refresh product catalog cache",
  "endpoint_url": "https://api.company.com/cache/refresh",
  "method": "POST",
  "headers": {
    "X-Cache-Key": "${CACHE_KEY}"
  },
  "body": "{\"cache_type\": \"products\", \"force\": true}",
  "timezone": "UTC",
  "schedule_config": {
    "repeat_type": "hourly",
    "repeat_every": 2,
    "time": "00:30",
    "end_type": "never"
  },
  "tags": ["cache", "products", "performance"]
}

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Monthly Operations

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Monthly Billing

Process monthly subscriptions on the 1st:

{
  "name": "Monthly Subscription Billing",
  "description": "Process all active monthly subscriptions",
  "endpoint_url": "https://api.company.com/billing/process-monthly",
  "method": "POST",
  "headers": {
    "Authorization": "Bearer ${BILLING_API_KEY}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
  },
  "body": "{\"billing_cycle\": \"monthly\", \"retry_failed\": true}",
  "timezone": "America/New_York",
  "schedule_config": {
    "repeat_type": "months",
    "repeat_every": 1,
    "time": "04:00",
    "end_type": "never"
  },
  "retry_config": {
    "max_retries": 5,
    "retry_delay_seconds": 3600,
    "timeout_seconds": 300
  },
  "callbacks": {
    "success_url": "https://api.company.com/webhooks/billing-complete",
    "failure_url": "https://api.company.com/webhooks/billing-failed"
  },
  "tags": ["billing", "monthly", "financial", "critical"]
}

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Monthly Report Archive

Archive old reports on the 1st of each month:

{
  "name": "Monthly Report Archive",
  "description": "Move reports older than 90 days to cold storage",
  "endpoint_url": "https://api.company.com/archive/reports",
  "method": "POST",
  "body": "{\"older_than_days\": 90, \"destination\": \"glacier\"}",
  "timezone": "UTC",
  "schedule_config": {
    "repeat_type": "months",
    "repeat_every": 1,
    "time": "03:00",
    "end_type": "never"
  },
  "tags": ["archive", "storage", "maintenance"]
}

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Limited Duration Campaigns

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30-Day Marketing Campaign

Send daily campaign emails for 30 days:

{
  "name": "Summer Sale Campaign",
  "description": "Send daily promotional emails for summer sale",
  "endpoint_url": "https://api.company.com/campaigns/summer-sale/send",
  "method": "POST",
  "headers": {
    "X-Campaign-ID": "summer-2024"
  },
  "body": "{\"segment\": \"all_subscribers\", \"template\": \"summer_sale_daily\"}",
  "timezone": "America/New_York",
  "schedule_config": {
    "repeat_type": "days",
    "repeat_every": 1,
    "time": "10:00",
    "end_type": "after",
    "end_occurrences": 30
  },
  "callbacks": {
    "success_url": "https://api.company.com/campaigns/webhook/sent"
  },
  "tags": ["campaign", "marketing", "summer-sale", "temporary"]
}

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Trial Period Reminders

Send reminders during 14-day trial:

{
  "name": "Trial Reminder Sequence",
  "description": "Send trial reminders on days 3, 7, and 13",
  "endpoint_url": "https://api.company.com/trials/send-reminder",
  "method": "POST",
  "headers": {
    "Authorization": "Bearer ${TRIAL_API_KEY}"
  },
  "body": "{\"trial_id\": \"${TRIAL_ID}\", \"reminder_type\": \"scheduled\"}",
  "timezone": "UTC",
  "schedule_config": {
    "repeat_type": "days",
    "repeat_every": 1,
    "time": "14:00",
    "end_type": "on",
    "end_date": "2024-12-31T23:59:59Z"
  },
  "tags": ["trial", "onboarding", "temporary"]
}

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Complex Scheduling Patterns

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Business Hours Only

Run every 30 minutes during business hours (9 AM - 5 PM weekdays):

{
  "name": "Business Hours Sync",
  "description": "Sync data every 30 minutes during business hours",
  "endpoint_url": "https://api.company.com/sync/realtime",
  "method": "POST",
  "timezone": "America/New_York",
  "schedule_config": {
    "repeat_type": "hourly",
    "repeat_every": 1,
    "time": "00:00",
    "end_type": "never"
  },
  "headers": {
    "X-Sync-Mode": "business-hours"
  },
  "tags": ["sync", "business-hours"]
}

For true 30-minute intervals during business hours only, you would need to create multiple cron jobs or implement the logic in your endpoint.

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Quarterly Reports

Generate reports on the first day of each quarter:

{
  "name": "Quarterly Financial Report",
  "description": "Generate comprehensive quarterly financial report",
  "endpoint_url": "https://api.company.com/reports/quarterly-financial",
  "method": "POST",
  "headers": {
    "Authorization": "Bearer ${FINANCIAL_API_KEY}"
  },
  "body": "{\"report_type\": \"quarterly\", \"include_projections\": true}",
  "timezone": "America/New_York",
  "schedule_config": {
    "repeat_type": "months",
    "repeat_every": 3,
    "time": "06:00",
    "end_type": "never"
  },
  "retry_config": {
    "max_retries": 5,
    "retry_delay_seconds": 1800,
    "timeout_seconds": 600
  },
  "callbacks": {
    "success_url": "https://api.company.com/webhooks/quarterly-report-ready"
  },
  "tags": ["reports", "quarterly", "financial", "executive"]
}

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Error Handling Examples

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With Exponential Backoff

Implement exponential backoff using retry configuration:

{
  "name": "Data Export with Backoff",
  "description": "Export data with exponential retry delays",
  "endpoint_url": "https://api.company.com/export/large-dataset",
  "method": "POST",
  "timezone": "UTC",
  "schedule_config": {
    "repeat_type": "days",
    "repeat_every": 1,
    "time": "01:00",
    "end_type": "never"
  },
  "retry_config": {
    "max_retries": 5,
    "retry_delay_seconds": 60,
    "timeout_seconds": 600
  },
  "callbacks": {
    "failure_url": "https://api.company.com/alerts/export-failed"
  },
  "tags": ["export", "data", "large"]
}

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With Different Failure Handling

Different callbacks for different failure scenarios:

{
  "name": "Critical Payment Processing",
  "description": "Process pending payments with comprehensive error handling",
  "endpoint_url": "https://api.company.com/payments/process-pending",
  "method": "POST",
  "headers": {
    "X-Payment-Key": "${PAYMENT_KEY}",
    "X-Idempotency-Key": "${TIMESTAMP}"
  },
  "timezone": "America/New_York",
  "schedule_config": {
    "repeat_type": "hourly",
    "repeat_every": 1,
    "time": "00:15",
    "end_type": "never"
  },
  "retry_config": {
    "max_retries": 3,
    "retry_delay_seconds": 300,
    "timeout_seconds": 120
  },
  "callbacks": {
    "success_url": "https://api.company.com/webhooks/payments-processed",
    "failure_url": "https://alerts.company.com/critical/payment-processing-failed"
  },
  "tags": ["payments", "critical", "financial"]
}

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Best Practices Examples

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Using Tags Effectively

{
  "name": "Production Data Sync",
  "tags": ["production", "sync", "critical", "team:data", "owner:john.doe"]
}

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Idempotent Endpoints

{
  "headers": {
    "X-Idempotency-Key": "cron-${JOB_ID}-${EXECUTION_TIME}"
  }
}

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Environment-Specific Configurations

{
  "name": "[PROD] Daily Cleanup",
  "endpoint_url": "https://api.production.company.com/cleanup",
  "tags": ["environment:production", "cleanup", "automated"]
}

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Testing Patterns

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Dry Run Mode

{
  "name": "Report Generator - Dry Run",
  "endpoint_url": "https://api.company.com/reports/generate",
  "headers": {
    "X-Dry-Run": "true"
  },
  "body": "{\"mode\": \"test\", \"send_notifications\": false}",
  "tags": ["test", "dry-run"]
}

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Sandbox Environment

{
  "name": "[SANDBOX] Payment Test",
  "endpoint_url": "https://sandbox.company.com/api/payments/test",
  "headers": {
    "X-Environment": "sandbox"
  },
  "tags": ["sandbox", "test", "payments"]
}

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Need Help?

If you need help implementing any of these patterns or have questions about your specific use case, contact our support team at [email protected].