Is it possible to use a REST Resource Javascript asset and run it as a background job or a cron job? Or does it need to be loaded on the front end in a browser?
If it does have this limitation, are there any other solutions for running server side javascript without having to load a front end page?
Both the server-side JS interpreters used by Matrix have a CLI utility, if you need one.
V8JS has d8, while Spidermonkey will have one or more of:
But this isn’t something that could be setup on in the Matrix interface? It would have to be done on the server side?
Yes, that’s right.
If you need a solution within Matrix, there’s a trigger action for Call REST Resource - maybe you could do something with that?
https://matrix.squiz.net/manuals/triggers/chapters/trigger-actions#Call-REST-Resource
Would there be any way that this trigger could be run at an interval such as once each day?
As far as I know, the only trigger event fired by cron is the Metadata Time event, which is fired by the Metadata Triggers cron job which runs every 15 minutes:
https://matrix.squiz.net/manuals/triggers/chapters/trigger-events#Metadata-Time
Perhaps if you used that trigger event together with the Metedata Time trigger condition and the Set Metadata Field Date trigger action, you could create a recurring trigger?
https://matrix.squiz.net/manuals/triggers/chapters/trigger-conditions#Metadata-Time
https://matrix.squiz.net/manuals/triggers/chapters/trigger-actions#Set-Metadata-Field-Date
Yep, you could use the metadata time trigger event and then have a condition of keyword matching to check the current time. For example use %globals_date% (with some appropriate date modifier) to check if the current time is 12:00:00 or something.