Cron forum mail workaround

Cron forum mail workaround

by Randall Kindley -
Number of replies: 4
I do not have cron access on my hosting server, nor can I successfully use the 'cron it from somewhere else' approach. (This is not a very good way of configuring the forum!).

Has anyone developed a workaround that just uses mail() or sendmail() just to (plainly and painlessly) send out forum postings?

Sorry to sound irritated, but I don't understand why it needs to be complicated.
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In reply to Randall Kindley

Re: Cron forum mail workaround

by Timothy Takemoto -
Dear Randall,

I guess that Moodle is like it is so as to allow users to think about and edit their posts. If there were no cron then the sendmail() or SMTP would have to be activated by the user posting which would mean that emails would be sent out as soon as the a user posts to the forum. But with the addition of a preview button, I guess there is no reason why it should not work like phpBB.

Since the cron does lots of other things too, as far as I know no one has attempted to build a cronless forum for moodle.   

Why can't you use the cron from elsewhere?

Timothy   
In reply to Randall Kindley

Re: Cron forum mail workaround

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
Cron does heaps of other work besides posting out forums ...  database maintenance, backups, assignment postings, unenrolling students etc etc

It's really not hard to call the script from somewhere else ... if you don't want to use your own machine there are many free cron services on the internet.
In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Cron forum mail workaround

by Randall Kindley -
I can, but is klunky. Here is what I have to do: Set up a scheduled task on my windows machine at home. Then have it run the browser every half hour to go to the cron.php file on the server on which Moodle resides. That means, of course, that every half-hour, my work in interrupted by an opening browser window on my machine. Not all that nice.
 
Now if someone wanted to agree to cron that file for me, that would be appreciated!!! Otherwise, I'll get nickeled and dimed to death by a cron service somewhere just to run one line. Uf Da!
In reply to Randall Kindley

Re: Cron forum mail workaround

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
Browser window? Did you try the Moodle Cron program (it's a Windows Installer) mentioned/linked in the Installation documentation ... it's silent.

See the modules download page for it as well ...