Quartz.NET 3.x

These are the documents for the 3.x line, which is maintained. Quartz.NET 4.x is the current release; the migration guide says what changed and what to do about it.

Tips

JSON is the recommended persistent format for greenfield projects. Also strongly consider setting useProperties to true, to restrict key-values to strings.

Tips

Consider Quartz.Serialization.SystemTextJson, which uses System.Text.Json.

Quartz.Serialization.Json adds JSON serialization for job stores, using Json.NET.

Installation

Install-Package Quartz.Serialization.Json

Configuring

Classic property-based configuration

var properties = new NameValueCollection
{
 ["quartz.jobStore.type"] = "Quartz.Impl.AdoJobStore.JobStoreTX, Quartz",
 // "newtonsoft" and "json" are aliases for "Quartz.Simpl.JsonObjectSerializer, Quartz.Serialization.Json"
 // you should prefer "newtonsoft" as it's more explicit from Quartz 3.10 onwards
 ["quartz.serializer.type"] = "newtonsoft"
};
ISchedulerFactory schedulerFactory = new StdSchedulerFactory(properties);

Configuring using scheduler builder

var config = SchedulerBuilder.Create();
config.UsePersistentStore(store =>
{
    // it's generally recommended to stick with
    // string property keys and values when serializing
    store.UseProperties = true;
    store.UseGenericDatabase(dbProvider, db =>
        db.ConnectionString = "my connection string"
    );

    store.UseNewtonsoftJsonSerializer();
});
ISchedulerFactory schedulerFactory = config.Build();

Migrating from binary serialization

There is no official migration, because every setup has its quirks, but this recipe can work:

  1. Configure a custom serializer, like MigratorSerializer below, that reads the binary format and writes JSON.
  2. Let the system migrate gradually as it runs, or write a program that loads all relevant serialized assets and writes them back to the database.

Example hybrid serializer

using Newtonsoft.Json;

using Quartz.Simpl;
using Quartz.Spi;

namespace Quartz;

public sealed class MigratorSerializer : IObjectSerializer
{
    private readonly BinaryObjectSerializer binarySerializer;
    private readonly JsonObjectSerializer jsonSerializer;

    public MigratorSerializer()
    {
        binarySerializer = new BinaryObjectSerializer();
        // you might need custom configuration, see sections about customizing
        // in documentation
        jsonSerializer = new JsonObjectSerializer();
    }

    public T DeSerialize<T>(byte[] data) where T : class
    {
        try
        {
            // Attempt to deserialize data as JSON
            return jsonSerializer.DeSerialize<T>(data)!;
        }
        catch (JsonReaderException)
        {
            // Presumably, the data was not JSON, we instead use the binary serializer
            var binaryData = binarySerializer.DeSerialize<T>(data);
            if (binaryData is JobDataMap jobDataMap)
            {
                // make sure we mark the map as dirty so it will be serialized as JSON next time
                jobDataMap[SchedulerConstants.ForceJobDataMapDirty] = "true";
            }
            return binaryData!;
        }
    }

    public void Initialize()
    {
        binarySerializer.Initialize();
        jsonSerializer.Initialize();
    }

    public byte[] Serialize<T>(T obj) where T : class
    {
        return jsonSerializer.Serialize(obj);
    }
}

Customizing JSON.NET

To customize JSON.NET settings, subclass the serializer and override CreateSerializerSettings.

class CustomJsonSerializer : JsonObjectSerializer
{
    protected override JsonSerializerSettings CreateSerializerSettings()
    {
        var settings = base.CreateSerializerSettings();
        settings.Converters.Add(new MyCustomConverter());
        return settings;
    }
}

Then configure it

store.UseSerializer<CustomJsonSerializer>();
// or
"quartz.serializer.type" = "MyProject.CustomJsonSerializer, MyProject"

Customizing calendar serialization

A custom calendar needs an ICalendarSerializer. The base class CalendarSerializer makes it strongly typed.

Custom calendar and serializer

[Serializable]
class CustomCalendar : BaseCalendar
{
    public CustomCalendar()
    {
    }

    // binary serialization support
    protected CustomCalendar(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context) : base(info, context)
    {
        SomeCustomProperty = info?.GetBoolean("SomeCustomProperty") ?? true;
    }

    public bool SomeCustomProperty { get; set; } = true;

    // binary serialization support
    public override void GetObjectData(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context)
    {
        base.GetObjectData(info, context);
        info?.AddValue("SomeCustomProperty", SomeCustomProperty);
    }
}

// JSON serialization support
class CustomCalendarSerializer : CalendarSerializer<CustomCalendar>
{
    protected override CustomCalendar Create(JObject source)
    {
        return new CustomCalendar();
    }

    protected override void SerializeFields(JsonWriter writer, CustomCalendar calendar)
    {
        writer.WritePropertyName("SomeCustomProperty");
        writer.WriteValue(calendar.SomeCustomProperty);
    }

    protected override void DeserializeFields(CustomCalendar calendar, JObject source)
    {
        calendar.SomeCustomProperty = source["SomeCustomProperty"]!.Value<bool>();
    }
}

Configuring custom calendar serializer

var config = SchedulerBuilder.Create();
config.UsePersistentStore(store =>
{
    store.UseJsonSerializer(json =>
    {
        json.AddCalendarSerializer<CustomCalendar>(new CustomCalendarSerializer());
    });
});

// or just globally which is what above code calls
JsonObjectSerializer.AddCalendarSerializer<CustomCalendar>(new CustomCalendarSerializer());