Job scheduling Versus Workflow

It's important to understand that job scheduling is not workflow. The two are often used as part of the same solution, but they are distinct solutions, and each can stand on its own. A job generally consists of several steps. Consider the password expiration job mentioned earlier. Essentially three distinct steps make up the job:

1. Get a list of users about to expire
2. Generate an e-mail for each user in the list
3. Update the record so we know an e-mail has already been sent for next time

This job can take advantage of a workflow in which each part of the job is a step in the workflow. This doesn't mean that job scheduling without a workflow component is bad. It's just a very common next step. As long as the jobscheduling framework can integrate with a thirdparty workflow solution as Quartz easily does, all is good. More on Quartz and workflow comes in Chapter 14, "Using Quartz with Workflow."

What about Alternative Solutions?