In Rails, background workers are typically used to execute tasks asynchronously, outside of the normal request-response cycle. This is useful for time-consuming operations like sending emails, processing large datasets, or interacting with external APIs without blocking the user's interaction with the application.

One popular background processing framework in Rails is Sidekiq, which uses Redis to manage the background job queue. To set up Sidekiq in your Rails application, you would typically:

1. Add Sidekiq and Redis to your Gemfile:

gem 'sidekiq'

gem 'redis'

2. Install Sidekiq:

bash

bundle install

3. Set up the configuration for Sidekiq, usually in config/initializers/sidekiq.rb:

Sidekiq.configure_server do |config|

config.redis = { url: 'redis://localhost:6379/0' }

end

Sidekiq.configure_client do |config|

config.redis = { url: 'redis://localhost:6379/0' }

end

4. Create a worker class under `app/workers` directory:

# app/workers/example_worker.rb

class ExampleWorker

include Sidekiq::Worker

def perform(arg1, arg2)

# Your background job code goes here

end

end

5. Enqueue jobs in your application code:

ExampleWorker.perform_async(arg1, arg2)

6. Start the Sidekiq process:

bash

bundle exec sidekiq

Now, Sidekiq will process the enqueued jobs in the background. You can monitor the job processing using the Sidekiq dashboard or CLI commands. This setup allows your Rails application to offload time-consuming tasks and improve responsiveness.