Question

i have an asp.net-mvc site with sqlserver backend and i am using membershipprovider for login, etc.

I have a few automated things that i want to run daily or weekly as i can do this today if i:

1. Log In
2. call URL

so lets say the URL is

www.mysite.com/MyController/RunCleanupScript

I know some people will suggest breaking the code of RunCleanupScript into a standalone script outside of the website but i wanted to see if there was a solution to automating the equivalent to the manual login and then entering in this url to call this script?

Answer 1

Phil Haak has a post about a solution which may work for you – he also warns of the dangers associated. You could use this method to schedule the clean up task. If you move your clean-up code out of the controller then there is no need for the login – it can never be called externally. If you need to still be able to login and force the clean up, then moving the clean up code out of your controller is still the way to go. Your secured action and the scheduler code will both call the clean-up code.

Another option could be to create a windows service that hits the action and stores the required credentials in its config file.