Plugins: Time/Date specific functions Other than setting up a cron job, does Craft include any functionality for plugins to run a function at a specific time and/or date?

Some actions could include:


Bulk activate/deactivate entries
Messaging all users every monday (or once a week)
Hitting an API (account update, eCommerce, data updating etc.)


Let me know if a question like this already exists. I searched and couldn't find any related information.
Not really, and it'd be pretty difficult for PHP to truly emulate a cron service since, by nature, it requires something to execute it before it can run (in Craft's case, a browser request).

The closest thing in Craft would be its "Tasks" (completely undocumented).  Tasks are usually meant for things that might take a long time for PHP to complete and it's not critical that they happen right away.

But you can't schedule, them... if there is a task in a "pending" state in the craft_tasks table, the next request to the control panel is going to trigger it.

I suppose we could add something like a "runDate" property to tasks where you could be at least guaranteed they wouldn't run until the first control panel request was made after that given date.