Cron Job with Python Flask

May 02, 2021

Easiest way to configure cron jobs on running Flask service

One requirement I had for my internal service was to read from SharePoint periodically (in this case nightly), and update data if the file had changed.

I used Flask AP Scheduler.

Documentation for the module is here.

Install python package

pip install Flask-APScheduler

Import and configure the APScheduler in the main file (where Flask app is initialized)

from flask import Flask, request
from flask_apscheduler import APScheduler

# Add Function that is executed by cron job
def scheduledTask(*args):
    # code for cron job

# some code...

if __name__ == "__main__":
    # Flask hook for cron job
    scheduler = APScheduler()
    scheduler.app_job(id = 'Description of cron job', func = scheduledTask, trigger = 'interval', seconds = 86400)
    scheduler.start()
    app.run()