Overview
CiviCRM includes a number of "Jobs" which process data and handle batch tasks "in the background". The available jobs are listed below, with a description of their purpose and required parameters. Your site / system administrator should review the available jobs, and determine which ones need to be run on a regular basis. These jobs can be configured and enabled from the Scheduled Jobs page (Administer > System Settings > Scheduled Jobs). Jobs can also be executed manually from this page. However, for most sites it is best to run the required jobs from the server command line, often as one or more automatically scheduled "cron" jobs.
A "run frequency" can be set for each enabled job, allowing you to configure a single "master" cron task to trigger ALL enabled CiviCRM jobs whose next run is due. For example, you may want to run the CiviMail mailing scheduler every time your master cron task runs (which might be once a minute). However, you only want the Address geocoder job to run once a day. You can enable both jobs, and set the run frequency for the mailing scheduler to "Every time cron job is run", while setting the frequency for the Address geocoded to "Daily".
To actually trigger all the enabled jobs in Scheduled Jobs you will have to set up a cron job on the server that does this. You can find out how below in the section "Command-line Syntax for Running Jobs".
Scheduled Jobs
Component | Job Title (API action) | Description | Parameters | Deprecated Bin Script |
|---|
Core and CiviCase | Process Inbound Emails (fetch_activities) | Inserts activities for a contact or a case by retrieving inbound emails from a mail directory | (none) | Email2Activity.php |
Core | Geocode and Parse Addresses (geocode) | Geocodes addresses in bulk. Geocoding provider must be configured (Administer > System Settings > Mapping and Geocoding). AND / OR Parses street addresses (populates street number, street name, street unit etc.). Street Address Parsing must be enabled (Administer > Localization > Address Settings) | geocoding=1 (0 to skip geocoding)
parse=1 (0 to skip address parsing)
start=null (optional, begin processing with this contact ID)
end=null (optional, process contacts with ID's <= this value)
throttle=0 (1 to add a 5 second sleep between each geocoding request) | UpdateAddress.php |
Core | Update Greetings and Addressees (update_greeting) | Updates Email Greeting, Postal Greeting and / or Postal Addressee for contacts based on a passed in format or your site defaults. This job is disabled by default and can not be enabled to run automatically as part of a scheduled jobs run. It can only be run manually (single job) from the Scheduled Jobs page or command line. (learn more...) | ct= (required: Individual, Organization, or Household)
gt= (required: email_greeting, postal_greeting, or addressee)
id= (optional: force script to set a greeting or addressee format other than default for a given contact type, use ID of format option value)
force=0 (1 to update all contacts, otherwise only contacts with null values are updated) | UpdateGreeting.php |
Core | Mail Reports (mail_report) | Generates and sends a copy of the specified report instance to the email addresses configured in that instances Report Settings. | instanceId= (required, ID of report instance to send)
format=csv (optional, to output the report as a CSV file instead of default PDF format)
format=print (optional, to output the report as printer-friendly HTML)
sendmail=0 (optional, tells the job NOT to email the report. use this in combination with print or csv format to write report to stdout so you can save it to a disk file) | CiviReportMail.php |
Core and CiviEvent | Send Scheduled Reminders (send_reminder) | Sends out scheduled reminders related to events or activities via email | (none) | action.cronjob.php |
CiviCampaign | Process Survey Respondents (process_respondent) | Releases reserved survey respondents when they have been reserved for longer than the "Release Frequency" days specified for that survey. | (none) | RespondentProcessor.php |
CiviEvent | Update Participant Statuses (process_participant) | Updates participant statuses for Wait-list and Approval Required event registration features. Moves participants from "On waitlist" to "Pending from waitlist" as space becomes available. Moves any type of Pending registrations to "Expired" if expiration period is set for an event. Sends notifications of status changes to participants. | (none) | ParticipantProcessor.php |
CiviMail | Send Scheduled Mailings (process_mailing) | Sends queued CiviMail mailings | (none) | civimail.cronjob.php |
| CiviMail | Process bounced mail (fetch_bounces) | Processes bounced email from the return channel | (none) | EmailProcessor.php |
CiviMember | Update Membership Statuses and Send Renewal Reminders (process_membership) | Updates membership statuses and optionally sends renewal reminders | | UpdateMembershipRecord.php |
CiviMember | Set Renewal Reminder Dates (process_membership_reminder_date) | Sets membership renewal reminder dates for current membership records where reminder date is null. This job should never be run automatically as it will cause members to get renewal reminders repeatedly. It is disabled by default to prevent it from being included in an "run all jobs" session. | (none) | UpdateMembershipReminderDate.php |
CiviPledge | Process Pledges (process_pledge) | Updates pledge payment and pledge statuses and optionally sends payment reminders | send_reminders=1 (optional: add this parameter if you want pledge payment reminder emails sent) | UpdatePledgeRecord.php |
Command-line Syntax for Running Jobs
PHP cli method
This method requires a valid Username and Password (for a Drupal, Joomla or WordPress user who has adequate permissions for the job or jobs being run). Note: password requirement is being removed in 4.2.
To run ALL scheduled jobs that are Enabled and are due to run based on last run and run frequency:
To run a specific job (regardless of Enabled status or last run time):
For example, to run Greeting updater job which requires ct (contact type) and gt (greeting type) parameters
 | Enable Logging with cli.php for single jobs
Entries are ALWAYS written to the job log when you use 'execute' action to run all scheduled jobs. Single jobs run via cli.php do not write to the Job Log by default. If you want a single job run to be logged, add -j to the beginning of the command line. |
| Using cli.php with Drupal Multi-site
If your site is NOT running under sites/default, add -s <site_directory> to the command line. For example, to run the Process Pledges job when your site is running from sites/myorg |
 | Make sure there that there are no reserved or unsafe URL characters in your username or password. These include: and spaces. |
URL method
You can run ALL scheduled jobs that are Enabled and are due to run based on last run and run frequency by invoking a URL with curl or wget. You can also invoke specific jobs via URL. This method requires a valid Username and Password (for a Drupal, Joomla or WordPress user who has adequate permissions for the job or jobs being run). It also requires you to pass in the CIVICRM_SITE_KEY which is configured by editing your copy of civicrm.settings.php (see Configuring your Site Key below).
| Logging with URL Method
Any jobs that are invoked using the URL method are automatically logged. |
Run ALL Scheduled Jobs via URL
Calling cron.php as shown below will run ALL scheduled jobs that are Enabled and are due to run based on last run and run frequency:
In Drupal:
In Joomla:
In WordPress:
Run a Specific Job via URL
You can also run any single job via URL by passing job=<api_action> as well as any required parameters. For example to run the Update Greeting job via URL:
In Drupal:
In Joomla:
In WordPress:
Configuring your Site Key
If you are triggering jobs using the URL method, you must manually generate a site key, and then add it to your CiviCRM settings file.
- First generate the key. We recommend using a 16-32 bit alphanumeric/punctuation key value. You can ...
- Open your settings file - civicrm.settings.php - in your favorite editor and either add or edit the CIVICRM_SITE_KEY value.
| in Drupal, civicrm.settings.php is located in /sites/default in Joomla, there are 2 civicrm.settings.php files. By default these are located in site/administrator/components/com_civicrm and site/components/com_civicrm - it's important to add the same key to both files as some Joomla front-end functions rely on the key (eg, decrypting the Outbound Mail SMTP Password) |
Depending on which version of CiviCRM you've installed, you may have this setting in your file already with a value of null, or you may need to add the line. In either case, replace null with the value of your key.
EXAMPLE: If my generated site key value is: 3cx4aNkpQwxmM1hTMV~!B09iO6
... then my settings file should look like this:
* Finally, make sure that you include the key=<sitekey> parameter whenever your run any of these scripts.
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