Executing cron tasks manually in Magento

Usually I’ve been asked about how to run a cron task manually. A cron task defined in Magento is not anything else than a function that belongs to a model that is loaded and executed.

For example, we have this cron task on a config.xml file of a specific module:

<catgento_sap_sync_nonimages>
   <schedule>
       <cron_expr>*/15 * * * *</cron_expr>
   </schedule>
   <run>
       <model>sap/cron_sync_nonimages::run</model>
   </run>
</catgento_sap_sync_nonimages>

It’s easy to identify the model and function that is being loaded and executed as it is inside the <model> tags. The model that is being loaded is sap/cron_sync_nonimage, and the function inside that model that is being executed is run.

Knowing this, we can create a new script that loads and executes that cron task like this (create a script.php file and put something like this inside):

<?php

//Load Magento API
require_once 'app/Mage.php';
Mage::app();

//First we load the model
$model = Mage::getModel('sap/cron_sync_nonimage');

//Then execute the task
$model->run();

The last step would be running this script manually (php script.php).