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Configuring Cron Jobs


ActiveCollab relies on Cron for various system tasks like: checking for new comments and tasks, sending email notifications and reminders, issuing recurring invoices, checking for updates, etc.

ActiveCollab has three jobs your server needs to run periodically - one every minute, one every three minutes, and one every hour. Your server can run them automatically at regular time intervals using Cron.

If you don't configure Cron to run those jobs, ActiveCollab won't be able to send emails or run other system processes.

There are two ways to configure Cron Jobs - both involve adding commands to your crontab file.

Copy/Pasting the Commands 

This is a simpler way, but may not work on every server. Here, we're assuming the location of the php executable on your server is /usr/bin/php - please update this path if it's different. Also make sure you change the /path-to-your-active-collab/ to where your ActiveCollab is installed, eg. /var/www/html/activecollab-5.0.85/

Open the server's terminal (via ssh or directly) and execute the following commands:

  1. (crontab -l ; echo "* * * * * /usr/bin/php '/path-to-your-active-collab/tasks/cron_jobs/run_every_minute.php'") | sort - | uniq - | crontab -
  2. (crontab -l ; echo "*/3 * * * * /usr/bin/php '/path-to-your-active-collab/tasks/cron_jobs/check_imap_every_3_minutes.php'") | sort - | uniq - | crontab -
  3. (crontab -l ; echo "0 * * * * /usr/bin/php '/path-to-your-active-collab/tasks/cron_jobs/run_every_hour.php'") | sort - | uniq - | crontab -

Manual Crontab Configuration 

This is a bit more technical, since you need to know how to set up Crontab jobs. The jobs that need to be executed are located in the ActiveCollab installation directory in tasks/cron_jobs/. You or your system administrator need to open Crontab in the terminal and manually add those jobs to run at regular time intervals.

These are the commands - just make sure to update the paths of your php executable and your ActiveCollab installation directory:

  1. * * * * * /path-to-your-php '/path-to-your-active-collab/tasks/cron_jobs/run_every_minute.php'
  2. */3 * * * * /path-to-your-php '/path-to-your-active-collab/tasks/cron_jobs/check_imap_every_3_minutes.php'
  3. 0 * * * * /path-to-your-php '/path-to-your-active-collab/tasks/cron_jobs/run_every_hour.php'

Checking the Configuration 

Execute this command on the server and observe the command output:

  1. crontab -l

You should see the jobs listed in the output. If that's not the case, you may need to contact your system administrator to help you out.

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