celery/docs/userguide/remote-tasks.rst

================================
 HTTP Callback Tasks (Webhooks)
================================

.. module:: celery.task.http

Executing tasks on a web server
-------------------------------

If you need to call into another language, framework or similar, you can
do so by using HTTP callback tasks.

The HTTP callback tasks use GET/POST arguments and a simple JSON response
to return results. The scheme to call a task is::

    GET http://example.com/mytask/?arg1=a&arg2=b&arg3=c

or using POST::

    POST http://example.com/mytask

FIXME: what is the content type? post as formencoded or as text/plain
with json ? support both?

Whether to use GET or POST is up to you and your requirements.

The web page should then return a response in the following format
if the execution was successful::

    {"status": "success", "retval": ....}

or if there was an error::

    {"status": "failure": "reason": "Invalid moon alignment."}


With this information you could define a simple task in Django:

.. code-block:: python

    from django.http import HttpResponse
    from anyjson import serialize


    def multiply(request):
        x = int(request.GET["x"])
        y = int(request.GET["y"])
        result = x * y
        response = {"status": "success", "retval": result}
        return HttpResponse(serialize(response), mimetype="application/json")


or in Ruby on Rails:

.. code-block:: ruby

    def multiply
        @x = params[:x].to_i
        @y = params[:y].to_i

        @status = {:status => "success", :retval => @x * @y}

        render :json => @status
    end

You can easily port this scheme to any language/framework;
new examples and libraries are very welcome.

To execute the task you use the :class:`URL` class:

    >>> from celery.task.http import URL
    >>> res = URL("http://example.com/multiply").get_async(x=10, y=10)


:class:`URL` is a shortcut to the :class:`HttpDispatchTask`. You can subclass this to extend the
functionality.

    >>> from celery.task.http import HttpDispatchTask
    >>> res = HttpDispatchTask.delay(url="http://example.com/multiply", method="GET", x=10, y=10)
    >>> res.get()
    100

The output of celeryd (or the logfile if you've enabled it) should show the task being processed::

    [INFO/MainProcess] Task celery.task.http.HttpDispatchTask
            [f2cc8efc-2a14-40cd-85ad-f1c77c94beeb] processed: 100

Since applying tasks can be done via HTTP using the
``celery.views.apply`` view, executing tasks from other languages is easy.
For an example service exposing tasks via HTTP you should have a look at
``examples/celery_http_gateway``.