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Scheduling imports

You can run imports on a schedule.

This is most useful when using an import file URL, e.g. update products to the latest stock levels.

However, it can also be useful to repeat uploaded file imports, e.g. to update product prices to have different prices for the weekend compared to weekdays.

Run imports, repeatly on a schedule

Scheduled Import from URL

Scheduling imports is most useful when importing from a URL as you can then import the latest data regularly, e.g. product inventory.

Specify a URL to import a remote file

When importing from a URL, you can optionally use placeholders to refer to dynamic parts of the URL, e.g. day, month, year.

https://example.com/import/product/prices-%Y-%m-%d.csv

Supported placeholders

The following placeholders are supported in import filenames.

info

Placeholders are replaced at run time using the UTC timezone.

PlaceholderDescriptionExample
Day
%dDay of the month, 2 digits with leading zeros01 to 31
%DA textual representation of a day, three lettersMon through Sun
%jDay of the month without leading zeros1 to 31
%lA full textual representation of the day of the weekSunday through Saturday
%NISO 8601 numeric representation of the day of the week1 (for Monday) through 7 (for Sunday)
%SEnglish ordinal suffix for the day of the month, 2 charactersst, nd, rd or th. Works well with j
%wNumeric representation of the day of the week0 (for Sunday) through 6 (for Saturday)
%zThe day of the year (starting from 0)0 through 365
Week
%WISO 8601 week number of year, weeks starting on Monday42 (the 42nd week in the year)
Month
%FA full textual representation of a month, such as January or MarchJanuary through December
%mNumeric representation of a month, with leading zeros01 through 12
%MA short textual representation of a month, three lettersJan through Dec
%nNumeric representation of a month, without leading zeros1 through 12
%tNumber of days in the given month28 through 31
Year
%LWhether it's a leap year1 if it is a leap year, 0 otherwise.
%oISO 8601 week-numbering year. This has the same value as Y , except that if the ISO week number (W ) belongs to the previous or next year, that year is used instead.1999 or 2003
%XAn expanded full numeric representation of a year, at least 4 digits, with - for years BCE, and + for years CE.-0055 , +0787 , +1999 , +10191
%xAn expanded full numeric representation if required, or a standard full numeral representation if possible (like Y ). At least four digits. Years BCE are prefixed with a - . Years beyond (and including)10000 are prefixed by a + .-0055 , 0787 , 1999 , +10191
%YA full numeric representation of a year2025
%yA two digit representation of a year25
Time
%aLowercase Ante meridiem and Post meridiemam or pm
%AUppercase Ante meridiem and Post meridiemAM or PM
%BSwatch Internet time000 through 999
%g12-hour format of an hour without leading zeros1 through 12
%G24-hour format of an hour without leading zeros0 through 23
%h12-hour format of an hour with leading zeros01 through 12
%H24-hour format of an hour with leading zeros00 through 23
%iMinutes with leading zeros00 to 59
%sSeconds with leading zeros00 through 59
%uMicroseconds.654321
%vMilliseconds.654
Timezone
%eTimezone identifierUTC, GMT, Atlantic/Azores
%IWhether or not the date is in daylight saving time1 if Daylight Saving Time, 0 otherwise.
%ODifference to Greenwich time (GMT) without colon between hours and minutes+0200
%PDifference to Greenwich time (GMT) with colon between hours and minutes+02:00
%pThe same as P , but returns Z instead of +00:00(available as of PHP 8.0.0)Z or +02:00
%TTimezone abbreviation, if known; otherwise the GMT offset.EST, MDT, +05
%ZTimezone offset in seconds. The offset for timezones west of UTC is always negative, and for those east of UTC is always positive.-43200 through 50400
Full Date/Time
cISO 8601 date2004-02-12T15:19:21+00:00
rRFC 2822 / RFC 5322 formatted dateThu, 21 Dec 2000 16:01:07 +0200
USeconds since the Unix Epoch (January 1 1970 00:00:00 GMT)