The Cron Jobs tab is the “autopilot” of your search engine. For the script’s advanced features, like real-time news aggregation and intelligent caching, to function without manual intervention, you must configure scheduled tasks on your server. This tab provides the exact command-line strings needed to ensure your site stays fresh, fast, and legally compliant with data retention policies.
1. Setting Up Your Server’s Crontab
To automate these tasks, you need to add specific commands to your server’s crontab (typically via crontab -e in your terminal or through your hosting panel’s “Cron Jobs” section). The tab provides pre-formatted paths tailored to your specific installation:
- News Feed Updates (Every Hour): Automatically fetches the latest stories from your RSS sources.
- News Cache Regeneration (Every 12 Hours): Rebuilds the static HTML and database indexes for the News vertical to ensure peak performance.
- All Cache Cleanup (Monthly): A comprehensive script that wipes expired data across all verticals to keep your database lean.
2. News & Content Automation
The engine relies on these background tasks to populate the frontend without slowing down user searches:
- Update All News Feeds: This job pulls the latest headlines into your database. You can see the Last Run time in the admin panel to verify your server is communicating correctly.
- Regenerate News Cache: This optimizes the news display for the user. If your news page ever feels sluggish or shows outdated content, this is the task that needs to run.
3. Surgical Cache Cleanup (Individual Management)
To maintain high performance on shared hosting, the script allows you to manage the cleanup of each search vertical individually. Each section shows a “Run Now” button for manual intervention and a “View Output” button to check for success:
- Cleanup Image Cache: Removes expired image metadata and deletes the corresponding local thumbnails to save disk space.
- Cleanup Audio Cache: Clears expired audio metadata (removes entries from the database only, as audio files are not stored).
- Cleanup Product Cache: Essential for the Multi-Search Beta. This removes expired product data and thumbnails, ensuring your shopping results don’t show “ghost” products that are no longer available.
- Cleanup Search Cache: Clears out old web search queries from the
search_cachetable to prevent database bloat.
4. Recommended Maintenance Schedule
For optimal performance, the admin panel suggests the following “Gold Standard” schedule:
- News: Every hour (0 * * * *)
- Cache Cleanup: Monthly (1st of the month at 3 AM)
- Logs Cleanup: Monthly (1st of the month at 4 AM)
⚠️ Technical Note for Administrators
The commands provided in the tab use a default PHP path (e.g., /usr/bin/php). If you are on a specialized hosting environment (like SiteGround or HostGator), you may need to replace this with your specific PHP CLI path (e.g., /usr/local/bin/php8.4).
By correctly configuring these Cron Jobs, you ensure that your “Surgical Learning” engine continues to get smarter and faster every day without you ever having to lift a finger.
⏱️ The “Last Run” Heartbeat
Every automated task in your system has a “Last Run” timestamp. This is your first line of defense in site maintenance:
- Verification: By checking the “Last Run” status (e.g., Jan 10, 2026, 16:43), you can instantly tell if your server’s crontab is actually working. If the last run was “53 hours ago” for a task that should run every hour, you know your server’s cron service has a configuration issue.
- Status Flags: Next to the timestamp, the system provides a “View Output” button. This shows you the raw logs of the last execution (e.g., “✓ Success”), allowing you to see exactly how many items were processed or if an API error occurred.
🛠️ Manual Filing & “Run Now” Overrides
You don’t have to wait for the next scheduled hour to update your site. Every major maintenance task has a “Run Now” button for immediate execution:
- News Feed Forcing: If there is breaking news and you’ve just added a new RSS feed, use Update All Feeds in the News tab or the manual trigger in the Cron tab to pull those stories into your database instantly.
- Instant Cache Purging: If you’ve made significant changes to your site or a product provider’s data has become outdated, you can manually trigger the Cleanup scripts for Image, Audio, Product, or Search caches. This bypasses the monthly schedule and wipes expired data immediately to free up server resources.
- Cache Regeneration: Use the Regenerate News Cache manual trigger after adding new feeds. This forces the system to rebuild the static HTML files, ensuring the frontend reflects your changes the very next time a user visits.
📂 Maintenance Tab Summary
| Task | Recommended Schedule | Manual Trigger Use Case |
| News Updates | Every Hour | After adding a new high-authority RSS feed. |
| News Cache | Every 12 Hours | After manually updating feeds to show new headlines. |
| Image/Audio Cache | Monthly | If your server disk space is getting tight. |
| Product Cache | Monthly | During this Beta phase to ensure affiliate data is fresh. |
| Search Cache | Monthly | To clear out old “long-tail” queries and lean out the DB. |
By utilizing these “Run Now” buttons and monitoring the “Last Run” timestamps, you move from passive observer to active administrator, ensuring your engine is always running at peak surgical efficiency.