Magento Cron Example

1. Create the main module config file.
app/etc/modules/Magentotutorial_CronExample.xml
[code language=”xml”]
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
<modules>
<Magentotutorial_CronExample>
<active>true</active>
<codePool>local</codePool>
<version>0.1.0</version>
</Magentotutorial_CronExample>
</modules>
</config>
[/code]

2. Create the second module config file.
app/code/local/Magentotutorial/CronExample/etc/config.xml
[code language=”xml”]
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
<modules>
<Magentotutorial_CronExample>
<version>0.1.0</version>
</Magentotutorial_CronExample>
</modules>
<global>
<helpers>
<cronexample>
<class>Magentotutorial_CronExample_Helper</class>
</cronexample>
</helpers>
<models>
<cronexample>
<class>Magentotutorial_CronExample_Model</class>
<resourceModel>cronexample_mysql4</resourceModel>
</cronexample>
</models>
</global>
<crontab>
<jobs>
<cronexample_crontest>
<schedule><cron_expr>*/1 * * * *</cron_expr></schedule>
<run><model>cronexample/cron::cronTest</model></run>
</cronexample_crontest>
</jobs>
</crontab>
</config>
[/code]

3. Create the helper
app/code/local/Magentotutorial/CronExample/Helper/Data.php
[code language=”php”]
<?php
class Magentotutorial_CronExample_Helper_Data extends Mage_Core_Helper_Abstract
{
}
[/code]

4. Create the php file that does the actual task.
app/code/local/Magentotutorial/CronExample/Model/Cron.php
[code language=”php”]
<?php
class Magentotutorial_CronExample_Model_Cron{
public function cronTest(){
Mage::log("Cron Test ".now(),null,"mageCronExample.log");
}
}
[/code]

5. Assume Magento is hosted on Ubuntu, and local url for magento is http://localhost/
Create a file /etc/cron.d/mageCron with the below line. It will run the cron every 5 minutes.
[code language=”text”]
*/5 * * * * root wget -q http://localhost/cron.php
[/code]
If we want to run the cron job in magento manually, we can also either issue the command
wget -q http://localhost/cron.php on Ubuntu command line or open a browser and visit
http://localhost/cron.php