automate easypopulate with cron?

[jchoi307]

i'm trying to automate easy populate, but i keep getting redirected to the login page. i've tried this thread here http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=114279 , but no success

much help is appreciated...
Thanks!

some relevant code that i'm using (i'm a php newb)

$easypopulate_url = "http://MYSITE/admin/easypopulate.php";
$easypopulate_vars = "localfile=dataimport.txt";

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $easypopulate_url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST      ,1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS    ,$easypopulate_vars);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION  ,1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER      ,0);  // DO NOT RETURN HTTP HEADERS
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER  ,1);  // RETURN THE CONTENTS OF THE CALL
//curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "$user:$pass");

$output = curl_exec($ch);

$info = curl_getinfo($ch);

if ($output == false || $info['http_code'] != 200) {
  $output = "No cURL data returned for $easypopulate_url [". $info['http_code']. "]";
  if (curl_error($ch))
      $output .= "\nError No:  ". curl_errno( $ch );
        $output .= "\nError Message:  ". curl_error($ch);
        echo $output;
  }
else {
  // 'OK' status; format $output data if necessary here:
  
    //$fp = @fopen($filename, "w+");
    //fwrite($fp, $output);
    //fclose($fp);
    
    echo $output;
}