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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.xano.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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What are background tasks?

Background tasks, or sometimes referred to as “cron jobs” are workflows that run on a set schedule. Background tasks are great for things like sending out marketing emails, report generation, analytics, and large data processing jobs.

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Building and Using Background Tasks

1

In the sidebar, hover over Tasks and click the plus icon to create a new task

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Fill in your desired options, such as name, description, tags, request history, and the preferred data source.
2

Build your background task.

Background tasks are a little different from APIs and custom functions, in that they do not have inputs or deliver a response. Tasks have two sections that require your attention.

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🔄 Function stack

This is where all of the magic happens. All of the business logic that is performed lives here.As you add functions to your function stack, it will suggest next steps based on most popular user activity.

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📅 Schedule

The schedule determines when your background task runs, and how often.
If a new run is scheduled to begin before the previous has completed, the currently due run will be skipped.
3

Set your task to active.

Once you have built your function stack and your task schedule, click Enable Task to set it as active, and publish your changes.