I
by
CPK Web Solutions
4.2 (5 reviews)
Improved Cron
Keep WP-Cron running every minute for scheduled tasks without actually using Cron.
Improved Cron ranks #13,128 among WordPress.org plugins with 100+ active installations, is #128 of 645 in the Business category, a 4.2/5 rating from 5 reviews, and was last updated Sep 28, 2015. Data from WordPress.org, refreshed twice daily — see methodology.
Tested up to WP 4.3.34 (Current: 7.1)
v1.3.3
Current Version v1.3.3
Updated 10 years ago
Last Update on 28 Sep, 2015
Refreshed 6 hours ago
Last Refreshed on
#128 of 645 in Business
Top 25% by installs
No update in over a year
Rank
#13,128
—
No change
Active Installs
100+
-52.4%
KW Avg Position
N/A
—
No change
Downloads
9.2K
+2 today
Support Resolved
0%
—
No change
Rating
84%
Review 4.2 out of 5
4.2
(5 reviews)
Next Milestone 200
100+
200+
5,821
Ranks to Climb
-
Growth Needed
8,000,000
Active Installs
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Need 61 more installs to reach 200+
Rank Changes
Current
#13,128
Change
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Peak
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4.2
5 reviews
Overall
84%
5
4
(80%)
4
0
(0%)
3
0
(0%)
2
0
(0%)
1
1
(20%)
Security History
Source: WPVulnerabilityNo known vulnerabilities on record for Improved Cron. Checked 1 month ago.
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- Version
- 1.3.3
- Last Updated
- Sep 28, 2015
- Requires WP
- 3.3+
- Tested Up To
- 4.3.34
- PHP Version
- N/A
- Author
- CPK Web Solutions
Support & Rating
- Rating
- ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 4.2
- Reviews
- 5
- Support Threads
- 0
- Resolved
- 0%
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TL;DR
AI summary of the plugin's readmeThis plugin is for site owners who cannot use real server cron for some reason. It keeps WP-Cron running every minute by visiting the site automatically, ensuring scheduled tasks run on time.
- Runs WP-Cron every minute
- No real cron required
- Insight into WP-Cron
- Same as Cron View plugin
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Improved Cron
WordPress Cron only runs when someone visits your site. A fake visit causes a page to load without needing a real person to visit. For the more technically minded, the plugin spawns a PHP sub-process that loops indefinitely and loads wp-cron.php each minute. This causes WP Cron to be triggered in exactly the same way it would if a real user was visiting your site.
Yes. However, you’d need to modify the plugin code. The reason is that WordPress won’t allow cron jobs to run more frequently than 1 minute, and running every minute has very little downside. If you really must tinker with it, hook a filter into 'imcron_interval_id' like this (change '123' to your desired interval time): add_filter( 'cron_schedules', 'add_my_own_interval' ); function add_my_own_interval() { $seconds = 123; $interval['my_own_interval'] = array('interval' => $seconds, 'display' => sprintf( '%d seconds', $seconds ) ); return $interval; } add_filter( 'imcron_interval_id', 'set_imcron_interval' ); function set_imcron_interval() { return 'my_own_interval'; } You’ll need to stop and re-start on the settings page to get the new interval to take effect.
Yes, it includes all events scheduled within WordPress at the time.
If your WP-Cron jobs work when you have a visitor, then this plugin should work for you. The plugin uses exactly the same code as WP Cron does, just in a different way, and with safeguards, a keep alive, logging available, etc. The ‘background process’ is really a HTTP request that loops indefinitely until you press stop in the panel. I also use a lock file system to prevent multiple ‘processes’ starting, as well as provide a failsafe method of killing the process (if the lock file is gone when it wakes up, then it dies).
Yes, but only a small, fixed, amount of memory. During testing, I left the plugin running for a couple of weeks while logging memory usage each minute. There was no growth in memory usage (Iow, no memory leak) and a pretty small memory footprint (under 250KB).
The plugin calls wp-cron.php directly, so I doubt any stats programs will record these visits.
It just helps them run when you expect them to (+/- 1 minute). Normally, WP Cron requires a visitor so the actual run time of a cron job can be hours after you scheduled it to run.
I haven’t done any testing with WordPress multisite yet. I created it for a project I was working on and spun it off into a standalone plugin. Unfortunately, I haven’t made anywhere near enough sales to justify much extra development effort at this stage, however I’m open to sponsorship to test and/or extend it.
