Cron Job for Product Alerts

[addison74]

ORIGINAL POST FROM HERE #1587

By default OpenMage is sending Product Alerts notifications using the information stored in this file:

file: /app/code/core/Mage/ProductAlert/etc/config.xml
line: 335

        <jobs>
            <catalog_product_alert>
                <schedule>
         	    <cron_expr>0 0 * * *</cron_expr>
                </schedule>
                <run>

As you can see the notifications are sent always at 00:00 and I really don't like this. The customers should get the notifications immediately to get the expected effect, not at night which is annoying. I tried to change the value in Backend but it seems to be hardcoded.

I created an module to change the config.xml file only. Here is the new content:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <modules>
        <OM_ProductAlert>
            <version>0.1.0</version>
        </OM_ProductAlert>
    </modules>
    <crontab>
        <jobs>
            <catalog_product_alert>
                <schedule>
	         	    <cron_expr>*/3 * * * *</cron_expr>
                </schedule>
                <run>
                    <model>productalert/observer::process</model>
                </run>
            </catalog_product_alert>
        </jobs>
    </crontab>
</config>

Now Product Alerts notifications are sent to customers every 3 minutes. We should do something to control this value in Backend.

[addison74]

As you may see, OpenMage only allows us to run the the price alerts cronjob Daily/Weekly/Monthly at a certain time. In my opinion, if I create a discount today, sending the notification after a week or a month is absolutely ridiculous. The cronjob should run ASAP, a value between 1-6 hours is best suited for immediate effect. It's true that one time per day would be OK.