Manage Cron Jobs with Codeigniter 3.0 and MySQL

I didn’t like managing all of my website’s CRON jobs via CPanel because I couldn’t easily see what my jobs were and when they will run next. So I decided to manage the CRON in my applications database and with a simple PHP script. You will need to only create 1 CRON job in Cpanel and this will subsequently run all the other jobs you define! Here are a couple easy steps on how to do it with Codeigniter 3.0.

Manage CRON Jobs with PHP/MySQL and Codeigniter 3.0

  1. Create the following MySQL Database:
    CREATE TABLE `cron` (
    `id` int(5) NOT NULL,
    `name` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
    `command` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
    `interval_sec` int(10) NOT NULL,
    `last_run_at` datetime DEFAULT NULL,
    `next_run_at` datetime DEFAULT NULL,
    `is_active` tinyint(1) NOT NULL DEFAULT '1'
    ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
  2. Create the file application/libraries/CronRunner.php with the following contents:
    <?php
    defined('BASEPATH') or exit('No direct script access allowed');
    
    class CronRunner
    {
     private $CI;
    
     public function __construct()
     {
        $this->CI =& get_instance();
     }
    
     private function calculateNextRun($obj)
     {
        return (time() + $obj->interval_sec);
     }
    
     public function run()
     {
       $query = $this->CI->db->where('is_active', 1)->where('now() >= next_run_at OR next_run_at IS NULL', '', false)->from('cron')->get();
       if ($query->num_rows() > 0) {
         $env = getenv('CI_ENV');
           foreach ($query->result() as $row) {
             $cmd = "export CI_ENV={$env} && {$row->command}";
             $this->CI->db->set('next_run_at', 'FROM_UNIXTIME('.$this->calculateNextRun($row).')', false)->where('id', $row->id)->update('cron');
             $output = shell_exec($cmd);
             $this->CI->db->set('last_run_at', 'now()', false)->where('id', $row->id)->update('cron');
           }
        } 
      }
    }
  3. Create application/controllers/Cron.php with the following contents:
    <?php if (! defined('BASEPATH')) {
     exit('No direct script access allowed');
    }
    class Cron extends MY_Controller
    {
    
     public function __construct()
     {
       parent::__construct();
       if (!$this->input->is_cli_request()) {
       show_error('Direct access is not allowed');
       }
     }
    
     public function run()
     {
        $this->load->library('core/CronRunner');
        $cron = new CronRunner();
        $cron->run();
     }
    }
  4. Log into Cpanel and create a Cron job that runs every 1 minute that calls the above Cron->run() method
  5. Insert the jobs you want to run and the interval in the database table that we defined above!
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4 thoughts on “Manage Cron Jobs with Codeigniter 3.0 and MySQL”

  1. Just adding a couple of fixes here.

    $this->load->library(‘core/CronRunner’); should be $this->load->library(‘CronRunner’);

    In you cron add php /{fullpath}/index.php Cron run

    Line 26 of cronrunner.php with shell_exec. I have updated it to
    $output = shell_exec(“php /{fullpath}/index.php “$cmd);

    This will allow me to write cron jobs in CI and have this run them. The format is index.php Controller Function

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