Using Django in a Cron Job

[Joe]

I would like to set up a python script that runs every night to send
out an email subscription. I would like to access a Django model that
has the user's email addresses, as well as use the Django sendmail
function. Can someone help me understand what imports/path setup I
have to do to get this working? (Note: I will not be setting up the
Cron job, nor do I know now. I will simply be giving a python script
to our IT staff for them to set up).

Thanks for the help,

Joe

[Waylan Limberg]

Access your data the same way as you would in the shell. From there it
wouldn't be much different than view code that sends out an email.

--
----
Waylan Limberg
way...@gmail.com

[Joe]

Thanks for the tip! However, when I use the shell in Django, I use the
command : python manage.py shell. I was just wondering if there was
some behind the scenes setup (in the path, for instance) that was being
done that I would have to do on the Cron job.

[Jeremy Dunck]

On 8/9/06, Joe <josep...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=python.module.path.to.project.settings.file
python yourjob.py

[Joe]

Thanks a bunch!

[Tyson Tate]

Here's what I use:

------
import sys, os

sys.path.append('/home/ohgoditb/django_projects')
sys.path.append('/home/ohgoditb/django_src/django/bin')
sys.path.append('/home/ohgoditb/django_src')
sys.path.append('/home/ohgoditb/python_libs/lib/python2.3/site-
packages')
sys.path.append('/home/ohgoditb/python_libs/bin/')

os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'fallingbullets.settings'

from fallingbullets.apps.links import models
models.sync_magnolia_links()

from fallingbullets.apps.photos import models
models.sync_flickr_photos()
-------

Then just call "python that_file.py" from the cron job.

I think some of my paths in my $PATH are redundant and you'll notice
my fun little namespace collision with 'models', but it works well
enough for me. 'fallingbullets' is the name of the project.

Regards,
Tyson

[Steven Armstrong]

%<------------------------------
#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys
sys.path.append('/path/to/django')
sys.path.append('/path/to/your/projects')

import os

# assuming /path/to/your/projects/myproject/settings.py
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'myproject.settings'

from myproject.myapp.models import GreenStripedPotatoes

...

%<------------------------------

Alternatively you can add django and your projects folder to the
PYTHONPATH, and define DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE as an environment variable
before starting your script

e.g.:
$ export PYTHONPATH="$PYTHONPATH:/path/to/django:/path/to/your/projects"
$ export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE="myproject.settings"
$ python /path/to/my/cronscript.py

The second method is more flexible as your sysadmin can write a shell
script that sets up the environment and then runs your script. Like this
your script can be used on different servers without changing it.

hope this helps
cheers
Steven

[JHeasly]

Steven Armstrong wrote:
> On 08/09/06 17:56, Joe wrote:
> > I would like to set up a python script that runs every night to send
> > out an email subscription. I would like to access a Django model that
> > has the user's email addresses, as well as use the Django sendmail
> > function. Can someone help me understand what imports/path setup I
> > have to do to get this working? (Note: I will not be setting up the
> > Cron job, nor do I know now. I will simply be giving a python script
> > to our IT staff for them to set up).

Also, if you're using Django's send_mass_mail, note that "As in
send_mail(), recipients in the same recipient_list will all see the
other addresses in the e-mail messages's 'To:' field." (from
http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/email/#send-mass-mail)

I think if you want to use a "Bcc:" header, straight Python may be the
way to go. As the e-mail doc says, have a look at
http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/module-smtplib.html (and
http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/module-email.html).

Regards,
John