To get a summary of the site in your e-mail every morning (the day’s orders, enquiries received, new sign-ups) you need three pieces: a PHP script that fetches the figures from the database, an e-mail account the message goes out through, and a cron job that runs the script at the set time. All of it fits on a shared hosting plan.
The three pieces
| Piece |
What it does |
Watch out for |
| PHP script |
Runs the query, writes the text and sends it. |
Keep it outside public_html. Credentials go in a separate file. |
| SMTP account |
It is how the e-mail goes out. |
Use a mailbox on your domain, with the connection details cPanel shows for that account. |
| Cron job |
Runs the script at the right time. |
The time is the server’s. |
Step by step
| 1 |
Decide which figures. Three or four are enough: how many orders, how many enquiries, how many new sign-ups. A report nobody reads to the end stops being opened.
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| 2 |
Create a read-only database user. In cPanel, under MySQL Databases, create a user and give it only the query permission (SELECT). If the report is stolen, nobody can change anything.
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| 4 |
Run it by hand once and confirm the e-mail arrives, and arrives in the inbox.
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| 5 |
Schedule it. Once a day, at an hour when the server is quiet, such as the small hours or before you reach work. The line has the full path to PHP and to the script: see running a PHP script from a cron job.
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| 6 |
Keep a log. Add >> /home/ACCOUNT/report.log 2>&1 to the line, so you know what happened if one day the e-mail does not come.
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Design the report to be read in ten seconds. The most important figure in the e-mail subject, the rest in a few lines, always in the same order. Compare with yesterday or last week: a figure on its own says little, a change says a lot. If you want more detail, add a link rather than a huge table.
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Do not put too much personal data in the e-mail. A report with full names, phone numbers and amounts stays in mailboxes, copies and phones. Send totals and counts, and a link to the panel where the detail is protected.
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If the report lands in the junk folder, the problem is the domain and not the script: see SPF, DKIM and DMARC: why your e-mail lands in spam. If the database user or password changes, the script fails silently and the e-mail simply stops arriving. That is one more reason to notice when it is missing.
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Make the script report when there is nothing: “today, zero orders”. If a day’s e-mail goes missing, you know at once the problem is the job and not the business.
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Need a plan with cPanel, cron and mailboxes? See the hosting plans.
See the plans
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