Run java function every hour

Question

I want to run the feature every hour to email users an hourly snapshot of their progress. I set up the code to do this in a function called sendScreenshot ()

How to run this timer in the background to call sendScreenshot () every hour while the rest of the program is running?

Here is my code:

public int onLoop() throws Exception{
    if(getLocalPlayer().getHealth() == 0){
        playerHasDied();
    }
    return Calculations.random(200, 300);

}

public void sendScreenShot() throws Exception{
    Robot robot = new Robot();
    BufferedImage screenshot = robot.createScreenCapture(new Rectangle(Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize()));
    screenshotNumber = getNewestScreenshot();
    fileName = new File("C:/Users/%username%/Dreambot/Screenshots/Screenshot" + screenshotNumber +".");
    ImageIO.write(screenshot, "JPEG", fileName);

    mail.setSubject("Your hourly progress on account " + accName);
    mail.setBody("Here is your hourly progress report on account " + accName +". Progress is attached in this mail.");
    mail.addAttachment(fileName.toString());
    mail.setTo(reciepents);
    mail.send();

}

Answer 1

Use ScheduledExecutorService:

ScheduledExecutorService ses = Executors.newSingleThreadScheduledExecutor();
ses.scheduleAtFixedRate(new Runnable() {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        sendScreenShot();
    }
}, 0, 1, TimeUnit.HOURS);

Prefer to use ScheduledExecutorServiceover Timer: Java Timer vs ExecutorService?

Answer 2

According to this Oracle article , it is also possible to use annotation @Schedule:

@Schedule(hour = "*")
public void doSomething() {
    System.out.println("hello world");
}

, 0-59, 0-23, 1-12.

.

Answer 3

java Timerworks fine here.

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/Timer.html

Timer t = new Timer();
t.scheduleAtFixedRate(new TimerTask() {
    public void run() {
        // ...
    }
}, delay, 1 * 3600 * 1000); // 1 hour between calls