Crons open the door for better automation

Article published 21. 11. 2019
| 3 minutes read

Do you own an online store or do you manage several of them? In your work, you have certainly met Cron — a service that monitors the regular tasks starting on web hosting. Its use will ensure the automatic generation of an XML feed, and in the following lines, we will explain why you cannot do without it when exporting from Mergado Pack.

Useful Cron job

What is Cron? A program that is a part of web hosting and regular servers. The service works mainly to automate repetitive tasks and provides a great advantage by running tasks at a given time. In hosting, it is used to periodically call the selected script, or to generate statistics, or exports. The user can set and specify the time at which the scripts will run. Cron tasks are also useful for updating the database and for downloading certain information regularly from the internet.

Crons run either as various scripts on the web hosting or as a random URL. There are several versions of this service. Basic packages typically relate to fewer records or a greater period between re-running a job. Higher tariffs offer activation of more Cron jobs and shorter start intervals.

Generating XML feed from Mergado Pack

The Mergado Pack plugin offers many useful services. One of them is creating an XML feed for the Mergado platform. You insert the generated export into the app and then connect it to any number of comparison engines.

However, this export is static, which means that it will not change once you generate it. However, you change prices in your online store, add products and make other adjustments. To keep this export live and updated according to changes in your store, it is necessary to regenerate it constantly.

Cron services, in this case, save time from manually updating the XML feed on the export. After copying the URL from the Cron job tab in the Mergado Pack administration, you paste it into the Cron service of your hosting.

Keep the number of Cron jobs under control

Most Cron services are limited to the number of jobs or the frequency of execution. But what if the current Crons on web hosting is not enough? The new versions of Mergado Packs will be able to gradually generate exports. This feature ensures more stable feed creation and minimizes instances of errors (e. g. insufficient hosting memory or maximum execution time).

However, this feature makes it necessary to run Cron jobs more often to start generating exports. A quality Cron service is required for this task. On the market, we have several external services — paid or free web hosting.

Cron services are powerful helpers in automating the generation of XML feeds with your store’s products. With the Mergado Pack, you can export data in XML format in the Mergado specification to create better data files. Download it for free, connect it to Mergado and test the power of the latest data in your feed.

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Author / Lukáš Horák / 21. 11. 2019

Lukáš takes care of most of the Czech and English communication in Mergado. Through blogs, e‑mail, and social networks, he regularly supplies readers with e‑commerce news and news and tips from Mergado. In his time off, he enjoys simple things like badminton, digging the hidden gems of the 80’s, and seafood served with red wine.

Tags: Mergado Pack

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