bcm_cron_job.rb

# a mixin to provide logging and nagios monitoring to cron jobs
module Utils
  module BCMCronJob

    # set up the log file
    # we could also simply use RAILS_DEFAULT_LOGGER
    def before_job
      log_file_name = "bcm_cron.log"
      @log_file ||= File.open(File.join(Rails.root, 'log', log_file_name), 'a')
    
      require 'logger'
      @logger ||= Logger.new(@log_file)
      #@logger.level = Logger::INFO
    end
  
    # run the job and log it
    # if given a block, log the value yielded
    def run_job(job_name = "BCM_CRON")
      if @logger.info?
        @logger.info(job_name + " starting.")
      
        if block_given?
          block_result = yield
          @logger.info(job_name + " yielded: #{block_result}") if block_result.respond_to?(:to_s)
        end
      
        @logger.info(job_name + " finished.")
      end
    end

    def after_job
      # write the changes to the file
      @log_file.flush
    end

  end
end