If you’re using Akismet to tackle spam on WordPress, there are a number of statistics available to you about your current spam situation. These are all available in the Comments page of your blog, but who wants to go there every day to check up on things. By taking control of WordPress Cron with WP-Crontrol and a couple lines of code, you can receive this information sent by mail every day.

As discussed previously in this series, you’ll need to have WP-Crontrol installed and go to the Add PHP Cron Entry screen under Manage->Crontrol. For Hook Code, enter the following snippet:

    $email  = 'There are currently ';
    $email .= akismet_spam_count();
    $email .= ' spams identified by Akismet, of which ';
    $email .= akismet_spam_count('comment');
    $email .= ' are comment spams and ';
    $email .= akismet_spam_count('trackback');
    $email .= ' are trackback spams.  Akismet has caught ';
    $email .= number_format_i18n(get_option('akismet_spam_count'));
    $email .= ' spams since you first installed it.';
    wp_mail('scompt@scompt.com', 'Spam statistics', $email);

Notice that all we’re doing is tossing a string together and sending it off to the wp_mail function to be emailed. You’ll of course want to change the email address. I personally don’t need to know how much spam you’re getting… I’ve got problems of my own.

• A Shortcode for use in posts and pages
• A template function for use in templates
• A dashboard widget

An example download graph looks like this:

Download Plugin-Stats Version 1.1

The new version of WP-Crontrol allows you to add new cron entries with code. This allows you to write code that will repeatedly be executed without actually touching any .PHP files. Below, I present a way to utilize this functionality to remind you to post something if you haven’t done so in the past two days.

PHP Cron Entry Screen

The first requirement is to install WP-Crontrol. This will add the Manage->Crontrol admin screen. Head there and you’ll get a quick insight into what’s going on behind the scenes in the WP-Cron system. We want to add a new PHP cron entry, so click on the small link next to ‘Add Cron Entry’. Now you should have something like the screen to the right.

The code that we’re going to use for the hook is below. I won’t go deep into it. Suffice to say, it looks at the date of the most recent post. If it’s more than 2 days old, it sends out an email reminder.

    global $post;
    $recent = new WP_Query("showposts=1");
    if( $recent->have_posts() ) {
        $recent->the_post();
        if(time()-strtotime($post->post_date)>60*60*24*2)
            mail('scompt@scompt.com', 'Post reminder',
                 "Hey!  You haven't posted in a while.");
    }

The only other options to set are when to run the hook and how often. After saving the hook, it should run immediately. Depending on how good you’ve been, you’ll get an email.

The plugin was sponsored by The Lessnau Lounge which means each Twitterdoodle post contains a sponsored link to his site. He’s advertised it a bit better and word of it is already popping up on Google, etc.

Download Twitterdoodle 1.0

• Input PHP code directly into the Crontrol interface.
• Non-repeating (one-offs) cron entries can be scheduled.
• Cron entries with arguments are now properly handled

For plugin developers writing plugins using the WP-Cron system, this plugin is indispensable. For WordPress users, WP-Crontrol reveals the secret life of your blog. My series on taking control of the WordPress cron system provides code and tips on how to best utilize WP-Crontrol.

Download WP-Crontrol Version 1.0

add_action("sm_buildmap","scompt_series_sitemap");
function scompt_series_sitemap() {
    if( !class_exists(GoogleSitemapGenerator) ||
        !function_exists(get_series) ) return;
	$gen = &GoogleSitemapGenerator::GetInstance();
	if($gen != null) {
	    $all_series = get_series();
        foreach( $all_series as $series ) {
            $gen->AddUrl( get_series_link($series->term_id) );
        }
	}
}

I think the code is pretty self-explanatory. Lines 3 and 4 make sure that all the necessary bits have been loaded. Line 5 gets a copy of the object used to generate the sitemap and line 9 feeds it’s the URLs of your series pages. The AddUrl method takes a couple extra parameters that let you define last changed date, change frequency, and priority if you want.