Technical Resources


Flux Flux

Flux or Quartz

September 2007



Ideas to help guide your decision on whether to use Flux or Quartz


You're looking for a Java job scheduler. Like any good developer, you evaluate your options. After some searching and introspection, perhaps you arrive at some of the following choices:


  • 1. Use a commercial Java job scheduler: Flux
  • 2. Use an open source Java job scheduler: Quartz
  • 3. Use something else
  • 4. Develop something yourself

Pretty quickly, you can make a "yes or no" decision on options 3 or 4 listed above. If you're going to use something else or develop something on your own, you've probably got your reasons for that. Maybe your job scheduling needs are pretty simple and you don't need something like Quartz or Flux. Or maybe your application's design dictates the need for your team to develop something on its own.


Which leaves us with options 1 or 2 listed above. Use Flux or Quartz. Quartz is open source. Why not just use Quartz?


Flux Corporation first released Flux in 2000 (before Quartz) and is a software company completely devoted to developing and supporting Flux. As such, Flux will naturally contain significant functionality above and beyond Quartz. This functionality should be considered to see if it meets your team’s needs.


If Quartz meets your needs, then by all means, use it! Quartz has a solid reputation and is well regarded in the Java development community. However, if Quartz doesn't meet all your needs or if you need to have commercial Support and Maintenance in place, Flux will be the natural Java job scheduler to investigate.


Here are some points to consider:


  • Technical Support: Flux has a dedicated technical support team, consisting entirely of Java developers. Flux’s staff support engineers answer questions promptly during normal business hours and, when previously arranged, during off-hours. Quartz has a discussion forum staffed by volunteers.


  • Graphical Job Designer: If your jobs are not just simple ones, a visual representation of the job can be helpful to comprehend fully how things will flow. Flux provides a Web-based user interface (Ajax) and a desktop GUI (Swing). Flux's Web-based job designer will be as functional as the desktop GUI in 2008. The desktop GUI lets you design jobs in a full graphical environment with nearly as much precision as in code.


    Furthermore, in 2008, the Web-based designer will be fully embeddable in other Web applications, meaning that you can embed job design capability seamlessly into your web application.


    Quartz does not have a Web-based or desktop graphical job designer.



    Web 2.0 Design

  • Graphical Operations Console: Once your Java application goes into production, your organization's operations staff may need to monitor your jobs. To do that, they need a web application. Flux provides a highly functional Web-based Operations Console to let IT staff manage your application's jobs.


    Also in 2008, the Web-based Operations Console will be fully embeddable in other Web applications, meaning that you can embed job monitoring capabilities seamlessly into your own web application.


    Quartz does not have any web application, although there is a dated, minimally functional web application that does not work with the latest version of Quartz and is not maintained by the core group of Quartz developers. See this forum posting for more information.



    Monitor Jobs

  • File Transfer: Flux has built-in functionality for watching FTP and Secure FTP (SFTP and FTPS) servers as well as files on the local file system. You can wait for files to arrive, process them, and push them out to other locations.


    Quartz does not have any built-in file transfer capabilities. You need to integrate a different solution with Quartz to add file transfer and monitoring capabilities to it.


There are other points to consider, and they depend on your application's needs and your IT staff's needs. Ideally, both Flux and Quartz should be evaluated to see which fits your needs. Quartz may be enough to meet more basic needs. And other times, Flux is the way to go. We hope the considerations above help out with your decision.


The Flux Team
September 2007

Technical Resources