Github Trending Cron on Now

DAY 30 👾

I’m back 💙

Now is a PAAS(Platform As A Service) provided by Zeit.

It provides Immutable Deploys which are free for public deploys.

Immutable Deploy means that once a service is deployed its never gonna change again.

Consider an example on How To Deploy A Simple HTML file on Zeit’s Now.

1
2
3
$ mkdir html-example
$ cd html-example
$ touch index.html
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
	<title>A2K</title>
</head>
<body>
	<h1>HELLO WORLD</h1>
</body>
</html>

To deploy this on Zeit’s Now you just have to type the command now

For this now needs to be installed on your system.

Install now with the following command.

Assuming npm is installed on your system, if it isn’t just install node from https:nodejs.org.

NPM is a Node Package Manager that comes installed with node. It manages all Javascript Packages.

ProTip:-

Use yarn instead of npm as yarn is much better than npm. I would’ve gone into the details but its out of the scope of this post.

1
npm install now -g

Type now to deploy it.

1
now

It’ll ask for email & password for the first time. Then it’ll deploy & will generate a unique URL. Something like

1
https://html-example-78nsd82s.now.sh

Now change the text in index.html file from HELLO WORLD to HELLO A2K & deploy again using now command.

This time it won’t ask for email & password. But as the text is changed from HELLO WORLD to HELLO A2K, it’ll generate a unique URL. Something like

1
https://html-example-235xz245.now.sh

Notice the hash changes. Now if you visit the earlier URL it’ll still display HELLO WORLD & the new URL will display HELLO A2K.

Thus, Zeit’s Now is the first PAAS which provides immutable deploy’s.

I used to use Surge & Github Pages for Static Files; Heroku & Openshift for Node JS Scripts.

But now I’ll be using Zeit’s Now. Its super easy & provides us with the SuperPower of Immutability.

I’ve used it in my Use Case for Github Trending about which you can read it here.

I have earlier made a CronJob for that but what if I don’t keep my PC On at the particular time when Cron is going to execute then it won’t run the script.

Also, with Anacron it waits till the next time you ON your PC, so if I keep my PC off for a weekend Anacron might run the script on the last day only.

That’s why I need some server which runs 24x7/365 & that’s why I’m using Zeit’s Now.

I’ve written a Node JS script which uses Cron internally & pushes to Github everyday late night @ 3.00 am according to LA Timezone.

Now I can keep my PC off for the entire year & it’ll still push Github Trending Repos online.

The Code is kept closed source.

Till the next time 👻