Cron Like I'm Five: A Cron to English Utility
npm install cronli5> ## DISCLAIMER: IN PROGRESS
>
> This is a work in progress and does not yet work in all intended cases. DO
> NOT USE until this discalimer has been removed. If you need something like
> this now, use [prettycron][prettycron].
Generate English language descriptions of schedules from cron patterns.
Accepts classic (five-part) cron patterns, or extended (six-part) cron
patterns, where the first field is assumed to refer to seconds. Accepts the
standard allowed values and the following operators: asterisks (*), commas
(,), hyphens (-), and slashes (/).
cronli5 is a good library to use if you need to display an English language
interpretation of a cron pattern in a Node or in a browser environment. If you
need to do other things with cron patterns, consider a library like [Later.js]
[later]. If you want an alternative to cronli5, [prettycron][prettycron] may
also meet your needs as an interpreter.
Install using npm:
``If you plan to use the cli:
npm install -g cronli5
Browser (script tag):
When included in a script tag, the
function will be available as a
global in the scripts that follow.
_Unsolicited advice: rather than including
cronli5 in its own script tag, consider using a bundler like [Browserify]
[browserify], [Rollup][rollup], or [Webpack][webpack] and include or
require instead. See below._Usage
As a command line tool:
`
$ cronli5 " *"
Runs every minute.
Including
in a script tag will expose cronli5 as a global
object.Import with require:
`
var cronli5 = require('cronli5');
Import as an ESNext module:
import cronli5 from 'cronli5';
Programmatic usage (ES5):
// Cron patterns can be represented as strings
var cronString = '/5 *';// Cron patterns can be represented as arrays of cron fields
var cronArray = ['/5', '', '', '', '*'];
// Cron patterns can be represented as objects
var cronObject = {
minute: '*/5',
hour: '*',
date: '*',
month: '*',
weekday: '*',
};
var expectedOutput = 'every five minutes';
expect(cronli5(cronString)).to.equal(expectedOutput);
expect(cronli5(cronArray)).to.equal(expectedOutput);
expect(cronli5(cronObject)).to.equal(expectedOutput);
Options
The
function takes an options object as its second parameter with
several boolean flag properties supported:
* ampm — Default true: Use 12-hour time if true, 24-hour time if
false.
* short — Default false. Use abbreviatted forms if true.
* seconds — Default false. Always treat the first field of strings
and of arrays as the second field if true.
* years — Default false. Treat six field string or array patterns as
if the last field is the year field if true.On Timezones
cronli5 always describes the pattern in whatever timezone the cron pattern
is being run. This utility does not, nor does it ever intend to, deal with
timezone conversions because, firstly, that functionality would require some
non-trivial dependencies (like [moment][moment] with [moment-timezone]
[moment-timezone]) to even approximate correctness and, secondly, the output
_would still be wrong anyways_ because [timezones are problematic][timezones].
To be accurate, associate the description with a timezone (e.g.
America/Phoenix).About
The project name is a reference to the phrase [Explain Like I'm Five (ELI5)]
[eli5], which is used to ask for a friendly, simplified, and layman-accessible
summary of material that may be hard to understand without some background.
cronli5 was partially inspired by [prettycron][prettycron], which itself
is based on code from [a gist by dunse][dunse]. Although prettycron was
close to meeting my needs, I wasn't fully satisfied with the output and was
limited by the lack of support for extended cron patterns. cronli5 tries to
render as many cron patterns in as direct and idiomatic English as possible.cronli5` was written from scratch and has no production dependencies. Its[MIT License][license]
_Copyright © 2016 [Andrew Broz][abroz]_
[abroz]: https://github.com/abroz
[browserify]: http://browserify.org/
[dunse]: https://gist.github.com/dunse/3714957
[eli5]: https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/
[later]: https://bunkat.github.io/later/
[license]: ./LICENSE.md
[moment]: http://momentjs.com/
[moment-timezone]: http://momentjs.com/timezone/
[prettycron]: https://github.com/azza-bazoo/prettycron
[rollup]: http://rollupjs.org/
[stackoverflow]: https://stackoverflow.com/
[timezones]: https://www.w3.org/TR/timezone/
[webpack]: https://webpack.github.io/