Schedule daily task in a Python app

Question

I'm fairly new at Python in general, but I'm trying to create a small background application that will read an excel file and send me an e-mail every day on some condition. I was wondering what is the best way to go about this? Should I just use some sort of loop where it does the action every so many seconds, and then execute the script from the command line? Is there a way to make it into a standalone background app? Thanks for your answers.

Set up your script to run repeatedly using the Windows Task Scheduler. It can run any kind of program, including things like python.exe C:\path\to\the\script.py. — poke
– poke, Commented Jun 18, 2015 at 6:34
You have to use startup tasks to run the python script upon startup so you don't forget to start it upon system restarts. — Alex Huszagh
– Alex Huszagh, Commented Jun 18, 2015 at 6:34
You could use 'threading.Timer' in combination with from 'datetime import datetime' For more information see - stackoverflow.com/questions/11523918/… — user3636636
– user3636636, Commented Jun 18, 2015 at 6:40
Yes I'm using Windows, and I considered the task scheduler, but then I thought, what if others wanted to download this script? So I'm trying to figure out how to make it into a standalone app. @Alexander - thanks for the tip! I wouldn't have thought of that issue. — Phil D
– Phil D, Commented Jun 19, 2015 at 19:17

user3636636 · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-18 08:10:01Z

1

Take a look at http://apscheduler.readthedocs.org/en/3.0/

Here is an example from there site:

from datetime import datetime
import os

from apscheduler.schedulers.blocking import BlockingScheduler


def tick():
    print('Tick! The time is: %s' % datetime.now())


if __name__ == '__main__':
    scheduler = BlockingScheduler()
    scheduler.add_executor('processpool')
    scheduler.add_job(tick, 'interval', seconds=3)
    print('Press Ctrl+{0} to exit'.format('Break' if os.name == 'nt' else 'C'))

try:
    scheduler.start()
except (KeyboardInterrupt, SystemExit):
    pass

Edit: I assumed this was the main point of your question. Re -reading however, are you wanting to know the whole process? -

How to read from excel file
How to automate an email
How to time/ schedule the function call
How to package as a desktop app

That is a loaded question. Let me know if you want me to elaborate on those points too

edited Jun 18, 2015 at 8:10

answered Jun 18, 2015 at 6:46

user3636636

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1 Comment

Phil D Over a year ago

Thanks for the answer! I actually looked into this library before, I just wasn't sure how to implement it. Well, I figured out the first two points (email and excel) but my question was more oriented towards the last two (schedule and package). Could you please elaborate on the last point?

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