delay function on publish?

Question

I have this function where I call a custom function through the add_action hook:

add_action('publish_post', 'custom_function');

... now it works perfectly, but the I want the custom_function to be delayed so it runs AFTER the post has been published.

BUT, if I add sleep(20) inside the custom_function it delays the post itself. What I want is the post to be published, and THEN run this function after x seconds.

Thanks!

Answer 1

publish_post is called after post is published! So, you already got covered. but if you want to run an action after a certain time of the post is published, it's better to write a cron job.

For example, if you need to run the function after 5 minutes of the post is published, you need to register a single cron event that will be triggered after 5 minutes from now (post publish)

add_action('publish_post', 'register_single_cron');

function register_single_cron($id){
  wp_schedule_single_event(tim() + 300, 'custom_function');
}

function custom_function(){
  //your logic goes here
}

Please check the api details here.

But this system has one problem, it will not be triggered until site is loaded/visited on or after the scheduled time.