Is it possible to create multiple timers in node.js for multiple independent tasks?

Question

Is it possible to create multiple timers in node.js for multiple independent tasks?

I have a node.js server accepting requests from a web page. Upon receiving a "START" request, I want to be able to spawn a timer that executes a task in the background every n seconds endlessly. Is this doable? and what would be a good example? A simple psudo-code is as below:

app.get("myindependenttasks/starttask/:userid"){
   //start a simple timer to handle to userid
   //continue to run the timers endlessly while 
   //while this call returns a "Task running" status
   //to the user.
   //Other users should be able to run their own tasks.
}

Are there any downsides if the number of user requests are around 1000 running tasks.

javascript
node.js
timer-jobs

Answer 1

You can use setInterval for this (http://nodejs.org/api/timers.html), but I'd be hesitant to do this for 1000s of these.

Instead, you should run one setInterval, and run the tasks for all connected users in this task.

So, when a user hits "myindependenttasks/starttask/:userid", it gets added to the list of users to process, and in your periodic task you go through that list one by one.