[DirectAdmin] Setting up Cronjob for Joomla jNewsletter

Method 1: URL access method

curl http://<domain.com>/index.php?option=com_jnews&act=cron

wget -O - http://<domain.com>/index.php?option=com_jnews&act=cron >/dev/null 2>&1

lynx -dump http://<domain.com>/index.php?option=com_jnews&act=cron >/dev/null 2>&1

If you use 'wget' is better to add the '-O -' option for don't get writed the downloaded file to the disk, only to 'stdout' and if your file is in one protected dir you can add the options '--http-user=USERNAME --http-password=PASS', see bellow:

wget -O - --http-user=USERNAME --http-password=PASS http://<domain.com>/index.php?option=com_jnews&act=cron >/dev/null 2>&1

wget, lynx or curl doesn't work?

If you having trouble getting lynx or wget to work. This may be the case if "localhost" is not permitted. Then wget, lynx or curl won't work on the local machine. Read more here http://drupal.org/node/65307.

Alternatively, you can try method 2. It works for me all the time!


Method 2: PHP file_get_contents method

Create a file script.php in public_html (or www) folder, with the following content.

<?php
#!/usr/local/bin/php
$log = 'cron.log';
$file = fopen($log,'a+');
file_get_contents("http://<domain.com>/index.php?option=com_jnews&act=cron");
fwrite($file,"Cron executed at " . date("Y-m-d H:i:s", time()) . "\n " );
fclose($file);
?>

Then add the script.php into cron job as follow.

cd /home/<user>/domains/<domain.com>/public_html/; /usr/local/bin/php script.php

php scripts aren't executable as they are unless they either have:

#!/usr/local/bin/php

at the top of the file, or you have the cron command set as:

cd /home/<user>/domains/<domain.com>/public_html/; /usr/local/bin/php script.php

Note: Adding Cronjobs

If you want a script to run every 5 minutes, it will be for every hour, of every day, of every month, so, all values will be * execept the minute. If you want every 5 of something, it would be all minutes, every 5, or */5

mintue: */5
hour: *
day of month: *
month: *
day of week: *

Detailed explanation: http://adminschoice.com/crontab-quick-reference



Resources:

(FREE) OnlineCronJobs

• onlinecronjobs.com
• minimum interval of 1 day (once per day)

Joobi

• http://joobi.co/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8268:jnews-cron-task&catid=93:jnews&Itemid=227#joobi
• Minimum interval of 15 minutes.
• but not reliable (as of Sept 2011)

References:
http://adminschoice.com/crontab-quick-reference
http://www.directadmin.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=872
http://joobi.co/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8268:jnews-cron-task&catid=93:jnews&Itemid=227#joobi
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=972255