What you will accomplish:

Every Saturday morning at 8am an SMS is automatically sent to all gym members with a link to a schedule of the coming week’s class schedule.

What you need to follow this guide

Steps

  1. Create a PHP file that sends SMS.
  2. Set up your cronjob

Create a PHP file that sends SMS

This PHP file sends a preset message to a defined list of recipients. In your code editor, create a php file and copy the code so it looks like the example below, except with your 46elks authorization details where indicated by comments


    



      

      Parts of a cron command      

      

      It is good to have an overview of cron before we dive in to our example.
        Below is a brief overview of cron commands and how they work (skip ahead here). Here is a simple cron job example:      

      

    

        

    


      
There are two main components of a cron job:

      
First, the timing: 10 * * * * - here you set the minutes, hours, days, months, and weekday settings (more below).

      
Second, the command itself:

      

    

        

    


      
The command itself in this example has three parts:

      
/usr/bin/php - PHP scripts are usually are executable by themselves which is why we need
        to run it through the PHP parser. You can use the command which php to check the correct path.

      
/www/virtual/username/cron.php - This is just the path to the script. 

      
> /dev/null 2>&1 - (optional) This part is handling the output of the script.

      
In the above example, the cron job is set to send every 10 minutes -
        or more specifically, every 10th minute of every hour of every day of every
        month, every day of the week. An asterisk is a wildcard that stands for 'all'.

      
Here is a break down of the timing elements:

      
      
Here are a few basic examples to get an idea of how it works:

      

        

          Syntax
          Explanation
        

        

          0 * * * *
          Run once an hour (every hour at minute zero)
        

        

          0 0 * * *
          Run once a day (every day at midnight and minute zero)
        

        

          0 0 1 * *
          Run once a month (on the first day of every month at midnight and minute zero)
        

      

      
If all else fails, crontab.guru is an excellent resource.


        
Setting up our cronjob on Websupport

        
Step 1 - Access the file manager

        
Log into your Websupport account and navigate to the 'file manager' through the 'files' tab. Once here, navigate to your websites public_html folder and select the upload symbol.


        

        
Step 2 - Upload your PHP file

        
Find your php file with 'browse' and once selected click 'upload'.


        

        
Step 3 - Access the scheduling tool

        
Now navigate to 'Schedule URL' which is located under the tab  in the top bar. Once here, click 'Add a new cron job'.


        
        
Step 4 - Add your cron job

        
Fill out the form according to the specifications you wish. You can see an example of the format of the URL which should be changed to match your specifications. Click 'Add' and your ready to test! 🚀


        

        
For testing purposes you can set a time closer to when you are following this tutorial so you know it executes correctly.

        
Some other potential use-cases for cron jobs

      

      

      Written 2020-12-18 by Ben Chatwin.