Scheduling Batch Apex

Along with Batch Apex, Salesforce added a scheduler to the Force.com platform. This enables any Apex code, not just Batch Apex, to be scheduled to run asynchronously at regular time intervals. Prior to the introduction of this feature, developers had to resort to off-platform workarounds, such as invoking a Force.com Web service from an external system capable of scheduling jobs.

This section describes how to prepare your code for scheduling and how to schedule it from Apex and the administrative user interface.