Cron is not mandatory: everything can be started from the browser. It is what makes prices update without you.
Scheduler URLs
They are shown in Settings → General, the “Scheduled runs” group, with the key already filled in. There are two jobs:
- Import new products;
- Update prices and stock.
You may schedule them as often as once a minute: how often a job actually starts working is decided by the periods in the same section, not by how often it is poked.
The run key
The scripts in cron/ are served directly by the web server, bypassing the panel login, so over HTTP they only work with a key — otherwise anyone could start an import on your hosting. Your own key is set in core/Config/config.ini as CRON_KEY.
From the command line no key is needed, and running there is more reliable: there is no execution-time limit that the web server puts on a request.
Logs
Separate logs are kept for cron, for product imports and for price updates. They show what actually happened: how many products went into the queue, how many were skipped and why, which product was updated, which was postponed with an error and for what reason, which feed did not answer.
The log is the first place to go when the result is not what you expected. A rejected cron run lands there too: which address it came from and with what wrong key.
The temporary folder
Downloaded feeds and intermediate files live in tmp/. The Overview screen shows its size and file count and has a clear button. Clearing is safe: anything needed is downloaded again.