wp_schedule_event( int $timestamp, string $recurrence, string $hook, array $args = array(), bool $wp_error = false )
Schedules a recurring event.
Contents
Description
Schedules a hook which will be triggered by WordPress at the specified interval. The action will trigger when someone visits your WordPress site if the scheduled time has passed.
Valid values for the recurrence are ‘hourly’, ‘daily’, and ‘twicedaily’. These can be extended using the ‘cron_schedules’ filter in wp_get_schedules().
Note that scheduling an event to occur within 10 minutes of an existing event with the same action hook will be ignored unless you pass unique $args values for each scheduled event.
Use wp_next_scheduled() to prevent duplicate events.
Use wp_schedule_single_event() to schedule a non-recurring event.
Parameters
- $timestamp
-
(int) (Required) Unix timestamp (UTC) for when to next run the event.
- $recurrence
-
(string) (Required) How often the event should subsequently recur. See wp_get_schedules() for accepted values.
- $hook
-
(string) (Required) Action hook to execute when the event is run.
- $args
-
(array) (Optional) Array containing arguments to pass to the hook's callback function. Each value in the array is passed to the callback as an individual parameter. The array keys are ignored.
Default value: array()
- $wp_error
-
(bool) (Optional) Whether to return a WP_Error on failure.
Default value: false
Return
(bool|WP_Error) True if event successfully scheduled. False or WP_Error on failure.
Source
File: wp-includes/cron.php
function wp_schedule_event( $timestamp, $recurrence, $hook, $args = array(), $wp_error = false ) {
// Make sure timestamp is a positive integer.
if ( ! is_numeric( $timestamp ) || $timestamp <= 0 ) {
if ( $wp_error ) {
return new WP_Error(
'invalid_timestamp',
__( 'Event timestamp must be a valid Unix timestamp.' )
);
}
return false;
}
$schedules = wp_get_schedules();
if ( ! isset( $schedules[ $recurrence ] ) ) {
if ( $wp_error ) {
return new WP_Error(
'invalid_schedule',
__( 'Event schedule does not exist.' )
);
}
return false;
}
$event = (object) array(
'hook' => $hook,
'timestamp' => $timestamp,
'schedule' => $recurrence,
'args' => $args,
'interval' => $schedules[ $recurrence ]['interval'],
);
/** This filter is documented in wp-includes/cron.php */
$pre = apply_filters( 'pre_schedule_event', null, $event, $wp_error );
if ( null !== $pre ) {
if ( $wp_error && false === $pre ) {
return new WP_Error(
'pre_schedule_event_false',
__( 'A plugin prevented the event from being scheduled.' )
);
}
if ( ! $wp_error && is_wp_error( $pre ) ) {
return false;
}
return $pre;
}
/** This filter is documented in wp-includes/cron.php */
$event = apply_filters( 'schedule_event', $event );
// A plugin disallowed this event.
if ( ! $event ) {
if ( $wp_error ) {
return new WP_Error(
'schedule_event_false',
__( 'A plugin disallowed this event.' )
);
}
return false;
}
$key = md5( serialize( $event->args ) );
$crons = _get_cron_array();
if ( ! is_array( $crons ) ) {
$crons = array();
}
$crons[ $event->timestamp ][ $event->hook ][ $key ] = array(
'schedule' => $event->schedule,
'args' => $event->args,
'interval' => $event->interval,
);
uksort( $crons, 'strnatcasecmp' );
return _set_cron_array( $crons, $wp_error );
}
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Changelog
| Version | Description |
|---|---|
| 5.7.0 | The $wp_error parameter was added. |
| 5.1.0 | Return value modified to boolean indicating success or failure, 'pre_schedule_event' filter added to short-circuit the function. |
| 2.1.0 | Introduced. |
User Contributed Notes
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Schedule hourly event with multiple arguments
wp_schedule_event() pass arguments by reference, so we have to send multiple data as indexed array.
register_activation_hook( __FILE__, 'my_activation' ); function my_activation() { $args = array( $args_1, $args_2 ); if (! wp_next_scheduled ( 'my_hourly_event', $args )) { wp_schedule_event( time(), 'hourly', 'my_hourly_event', $args ); } }Don’t forgot to add total number of argument as $accepted_args on add_action().
add_action( 'my_hourly_event', 'do_this_hourly', 10, 2 ); function do_this_hourly($args_1, $args_2 ) { // do something every hour }Don’t forget to clean the scheduler on deactivation:
register_deactivation_hook( __FILE__, 'my_deactivation' ); function my_deactivation() { wp_clear_scheduled_hook( 'my_hourly_event' ); }Top ↑
Feedback
In this example the event is only rescheduled when reactivating the plugin. Most likely a developer would want to perform the evening scheduling within the init hook. — By Sander van Dragt —
When clearing the scheduled hook you need to also pass the argument array the same way you did when you were creating the schedule, or else it would not clear. In your example the schedule would not be deleted on plugin deactivation because
wp_clear_scheduled_hook( 'my_hourly_event' );is missing the arguments. Fix:wp_clear_scheduled_hook( 'my_hourly_event', array($args_1, $args_2) );— By Uriahs Victor —Schedule an hourly event
To schedule an hourly event in a plugin, call
wp_schedule_eventon activation (otherwise you will end up with a lot of scheduled events!):register_activation_hook( __FILE__, 'my_activation' ); add_action( 'my_hourly_event', 'do_this_hourly' ); function my_activation() { wp_schedule_event( time(), 'hourly', 'my_hourly_event' ); } function do_this_hourly() { // do something every hour }Don’t forget to clean the scheduler on deactivation:
register_deactivation_hook( __FILE__, 'my_deactivation' ); function my_deactivation() { wp_clear_scheduled_hook( 'my_hourly_event' ); }Top ↑
Feedback
In this example the event is only rescheduled when reactivating the plugin. Most likely a developer would want to perform the evening scheduling within the init hook. It’s also missing a check to see whether the event is already scheduled. — By Sander van Dragt —
It should be noted that depending on how resource-intensive your hook is, the default behavior of “Waiting until a user visits the site” may not be suitable. Of course you should try to make your code as efficient as possible – but if you have a specific case where it’s still resource intensive you do not want to keep the user sitting on a white screen while your hook does it’s work.
For specific situations you might want to consider disabling WP’s internal CRON by placing this line:
define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', 'true');into the file:
wp-config.phpThen create a CRON job with your hosting control panel to fetch the URL:
https://example.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron
OR execute:
/usr/bin/php -q /path-to-your-wp-installation/wp-cron.php
Your specific environment may vary.
Note: If you are using custom recurrences make sure to call wp_schedule_event after you added the cron_schedules filter.
An actual working best-practice minimal example.
function svd_deactivate() { wp_clear_scheduled_hook( 'svd_cron' ); } add_action('init', function() { add_action( 'svd_cron', 'svd_run_cron' ); register_deactivation_hook( __FILE__, 'svd_deactivate' ); if (! wp_next_scheduled ( 'svd_cron' )) { wp_schedule_event( time(), 'daily', 'svd_cron' ); } }); function svd_run_cron() { // do your stuff. }Expand full source codeCollapse full source code
Per Minute.
add_filter( 'cron_schedules', function ( $schedules ) { $schedules['per_minute'] = array( 'interval' => 60, 'display' => __( 'One Minute' ) ); return $schedules; } );Usage