Add Cron Job to Function (node.js, express, react, mongodb)

Question

Can you help me with cron function in my app? I'm stuck with it(

Here's my "track.controller.js" and "server.js" with "multiTrack" function. multiTrack() function starts re-crawling process by users URL's, it's starts manually via button in users dashboard, but i want to add cron job to this function (multiTrack). Imported "multiTrack" function in server.js file return "req is not defined"... Thank u!

/-----------server.js------------/

const cron = require('node-cron');
const multiTrackfunc = require('./controllers/track.controller.js');

cron.schedule("*/60 * * * * *", () => {
  try {
    multiTrackfunc.multiTrack(req, res, next);
    console.log(`Re-crawling starts via cron`);
  }
  catch (err) {
    console.log(`${err} - in cron`);
  }
});

/-----------server.js------------/

/-----------track.controller.js------------/

const cron = require('node-cron')

exports.multiTrack = async (req, res, next) => {
  try {
    const { userId, createdTracks } = req.body;
    const trackIds = createdTracks.map((createdTrack) => createdTrack._id);

    const user = await User.findById(userId);
    if (!user) {
      return res.status(401).json({
        success: false,
        error: "User does not exist",
      });
    }

    try {
      // loop through each track START
      await new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        createdTracks.forEach(async (createdTrack) => {
          const existingTrack = await Track.findById(createdTrack._id);
          if (!existingTrack) {
            reject();
          }
          
          // crawl Amazon product
          console.log(`${createdTrack.name} re-crawling starts`);
          const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
          const page = await browser.newPage();

          await page.goto(createdTrack.productUrl, {
            waitUntil: "networkidle2",
          });

          const crawledProduct = await page.evaluate(() => {
            let actualPrice = 0;

            const prepOurPrice = document.querySelector("span.woocommerce-Price-amount.amount").innerText;

            const image = document.querySelector(".woocommerce-product-gallery__image a img").src;
            const ourPrice = parseFloat(prepOurPrice.replace(/[^0-9\.-]+/g, ""));
            const salePrice = document.querySelector("#priceblock_saleprice");
            const dealPrice = document.querySelector("#priceblock_dealprice");

            ///parseFloat(actualPrice.replace(/[^0-9\.-]+/g, ""))

            if (ourPrice) {
              actualPrice = ourPrice;
            } else if (salePrice) {
              actualPrice = salePrice.innerText;
            } else if (dealPrice) {
              actualPrice = dealPrice.innerText;
            }

            return {
              image,
              actualPrice,
            };
          });
          console.log(`${createdTrack.name} re-crawling ends`);
          await browser.close();

          const { image, actualPrice } = crawledProduct;

          if (existingTrack.image !== image) {
            existingTrack.image = image;
            await existingTrack.save();
          }

          if (existingTrack.actualPrice !== actualPrice) {
            existingTrack.actualPrice = actualPrice;
            await existingTrack.save();
          }

          resolve();
        });
      });
      // loop through each track END
    } catch {
      return res.status(401).json({
        success: false,
        error: "Found invalid track id",
      });
    }

    const tracks = await Track.find({ _id: { $in: trackIds } });

    return res.status(201).json({
      success: true,
      data: tracks,
    });
  } catch (err) {
    console.log("crawling failed");
    return res.status(500).json({ error: err.message });
  }
};

/-----------track.controller.js------------/

UPDATE

When I remove "req, res, next" from

cron.schedule("*/5 * * * * *", () => {
  try {
    multiTrackfunc.multiTrack();
    console.log(`Re-crawling starts via cron`);
  }
  catch (err) {
    console.log(`${err} - in cron`);
  }
});

Looks like "multiTrack" starts, but with errors: Terminal chronology:

crawling failed
Re-crawling starts via cron
/Work/Scrapers/webtools-tracker/controllers/track.controller.js:258
return res.status(500).json({ error: err.message });

TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'status')
at Object.exports.multiTrack (/Work/Scrapers/webtools-tracker/controllers/track.controller.js:258:16)

Answer 1

You can use setInterval.

The setInterval() method, offered on the Window and Worker interfaces, repeatedly calls a function or executes a code snippet, with a fixed time delay between each call.