# ActionMailer Automatically sends an email everyday at a specific time **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [May 15, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/actionmailer-automatically-sends-an-email-everyday-at-a-specific-time/137706 "2008-05-15T15:23:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![T\_K](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/e0b2c6/32.png) [@T\_K](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/T_K)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/actionmailer-automatically-sends-an-email-everyday-at-a-specific-time/137706/1 "2008-05-15T15:23:04Z")
Hi, I would like to have a notification system where an email is sent to specific addresses every morning with different contents everyday. The contents are stored in the data, but the number of recipients is a few. So, it’s not a gigantic task. I will be using ActionMailer on Rails 2.0.2, but I can’t come up with a way to trigger the method to send the emails at a given time everyday. If my understanding is correct, Unix has a cron job, so I could use that, though that is not beyond the territory of Rails. Is there any easier way to do that in Rails? Or would you recommend me that I use a cron job for this? - T ---
**Author:** ![T\_K](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/e0b2c6/32.png) [@T\_K](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/T_K)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 7:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/actionmailer-automatically-sends-an-email-everyday-at-a-specific-time/137706/2 "2008-05-15T19:31:57Z")
On May 15, 9:22 am, “T K” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I will be using ActionMailer on Rails 2.0.2, but I can’t come up with > a way to trigger the method to send the emails at a given time > everyday. If my understanding is correct, Unix has a cron job, so I > could use that, though that is not beyond the territory of Rails. Is > there any easier way to do that in Rails? Or would you recommend me > that I use a cron job for this? You can either use cron and a standalone rails script that partially loads some of the rails stuff and does it’s thing, or you can write a standalone ruby script that simply sleeps and wakes up every minute or so and runs when it’s the correct time (or close to it). You can always use a daemon gem so that it keeps itself alive in case of random crashes. # Cron/Ruby advantage: More advanced timing (every other hour on alternate Thursdays in June, for example). More accurate if you need precise timing (instead of whatever your polling resolution is in your ruby script) Standard Unix tool, so sysadmins will easily know what you are doing Stupidly simple to set up, and cron is old and stable, and won’t ever change No silly polling that wastes time as with the pure Ruby version (more elegant) # Pure Ruby advantage: More easily understandable for Ruby users not familiar with Unix, and cross-platform (as Windows does not have an easily accessible equivalent to cron) No need to access system tools (normally available to only root user/ wheel group) You can tie it directly into your server’s (i.e. Ruby software, not the system itself) startup scripts so you don’t forget it’s there, and it’s tied to your ruby app (it’s easy to forget cron stuff… and sending out e-mails is something you don’t want to forget you are doing), and you can easily turn it off without modifying the crontab. Cron is really meant for system-wide administration tasks, not simply running user programs periodically. Database driven: you can manage the times it runs via the database, instead of manually setting up/modifying a cron entry. It will run under whatever user ruby/rails runs under (instead of the cron’s user). Better security and you won’t accidentally FUBAR something you don’t really own. This also makes system CPU/disk/etc. quotas work correctly. Keep all your periodic tasks in one file even if they don’t run at the same time, instead of multiple scripts like cron would need. As with almost everything… “It depends.” 😉