Admin Guide

72-Hour Social Repost Scheduler

Automatically pull the latest maritime news from RSS and format it for your Facebook page every 3 days — set it up once and it runs itself.

How it works

📡

RSS Fetch

Pulls the latest item from Splash247, Maritime Executive, and Hellenic Shipping News.

✍️

Post Formatted

Wraps the headline and summary in an EMTIN-branded caption with hashtags and your phone number.

📤

Ready to Publish

Returns the formatted post text. Your scheduler copies it to Facebook via the Graph API or manually.

Step 0 — Add your CRON_SECRET

The endpoint is protected by a secret header so only your scheduler can call it. Add a secret called CRON_SECRET in Settings → Secrets with any long random string (e.g. a UUID or 32-character hex value). Then pass it as the X-Cron-Secret header in every call below.

Note: If no CRON_SECRET is configured the endpoint still responds, but adding one before going live is strongly recommended.

Option A — Linux / VPS Cron Job

Best if you already have a server or VPS

Test the endpoint manually

Run this from your terminal to confirm it responds:

command

curl -X POST "https://www.trainingnigeriapro.com/api/social-repost" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-Cron-Secret: YOUR_CRON_SECRET"

You should receive a JSON response with a post field containing the formatted social copy.

Open your crontab

command

crontab -e

Add the 72-hour schedule

This fires at 09:00 every 3 days:

command

0 9 */3 * * curl -X POST "https://www.trainingnigeriapro.com/api/social-repost" -H "X-Cron-Secret: $CRON_SECRET" -H "Content-Type: application/json"

Save and exit. Verify with crontab -l.

Log the output (optional)

Append >> /var/log/emtin-repost.log 2>&1 to the cron line to keep a record of each run.

Option B — Zapier

No-code, free tier available — easiest option

Create a new Zap — Trigger: "Schedule by Zapier"

Set the trigger to Every 3 Days at your preferred time (e.g. 09:00 WAT).

Add an Action: "Webhooks by Zapier" → POST

URL: https://www.trainingnigeriapro.com/api/social-repost
Payload Type: JSON
Headers: Add X-Cron-Secret → your secret value

(Optional) Post to Facebook automatically

Add a third step: Facebook Pages → Create Page Post. Map the post field from the webhook response as the message body.

Test and turn on

Click Test Zap, confirm the response contains your formatted post, then turn the Zap on.

Open Zapier

Option C — Make (formerly Integromat)

Visual workflow builder, generous free tier

Create a new Scenario — add module: "Tools → Schedule"

Set the interval to 259,200 seconds (72 hours). Choose a start time in WAT.

Add module: "HTTP → Make a Request"

Configure as follows:

command

{
  "method": "POST",
  "url": "https://www.trainingnigeriapro.com/api/social-repost",
  "headers": {
    "X-Cron-Secret": "{{YOUR_CRON_SECRET}}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
  }
}

Parse the response

Add a JSON → Parse JSON module. Map the post field from the parsed output.

(Optional) Post to Facebook automatically

Add a Facebook Pages → Create a Post module. Map the post value as the message body.

Activate the scenario

Toggle the scenario to ON and run once to verify.

Open Make

Endpoint reference

Method	POST
URL	https://www.trainingnigeriapro.com/api/social-repost
Header	X-Cron-Secret: <your secret>
Response	JSON — post, title, link, source, generatedAt
Cadence	Call every 72 hours (259,200 seconds)
Cache TTL	72 hours — repeated calls within the window return the same item