Wpomatic WP-o-Matic

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  arw October 15th, 2008 @ 06:59 AM

  i have the same problem

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  erick October 15th, 2008 @ 10:28 PM

  server times? I just installed the plugin and noticed that godaddy has their server set to UTC-7 Mountain time. So if you are on eastern time that is 3 hours difference.

  Just a guess....but what do I know. I just posted my first ticket a minute ago.

  erick

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  Marcus November 17th, 2008 @ 04:09 AM

  I unchecked Unix Cron and now it fetches automatically. Only problem is that it fetches several times a minute, apparently ignoring what I have set for the frequency in options. Not sure why it would be doing this.

  Any idea?

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  ronin-22554 (at lighthouseapp) November 20th, 2008 @ 02:45 AM

  I'm having the same issue. I've managed to get everything else working properly.

  WP-o-Matic is set to fetch once every 30 minutes. The cron job runs once every 20 minutes. I can login via SSH and paste the command I'm passing on to cron, and WP-o-Matic fetches the feed properly and outputs the test post.

  However, the timer on my WP-o-Matic dashboard after refreshing says that it will next fetch 3 hours and 30 minutes from now. It looks as though it's adding 3 hours to the timer.

  If I turn off cron in WP-o-Matic's 'options' section, but leave the cron job enabled on the server (essentially telling it that WebCron will handle things, but continuing with the server-based cron anyway), then the feed is fetched several times a minute. I mean, I'm glad that it's finally fetching, but this is too often for me.

  At the same time, that 3:30 timer continues counting down, even though it's repeatedly fetching in the background.

  My time zone is set properly in WordPress, and during the setup page for WP-o-Matic, it reported the time and time zone correctly.

  Since it's late, I'm not going to wait for 3 1/2 hours to pass to see if it eventually fetches. I'm posting an item to the feed, and will see if the 3 1/2 hour countdown eventually yields a new post to WordPress. I can live with a 3 1/2 hour delay. Will report back tomorrow.

  If there's any additional information I can provide, or testing that I can do, let me know! Thanks for the help.

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  ronin-22554 (at lighthouseapp) November 20th, 2008 @ 06:53 AM

  Okay, I'm up anyway, so here are the results.

  At 3 AM, the cron job ran - about a minute later, WP-o-Matic was ready to post. Before, I couldn't figure out what the times meant. It seems that WP-o-Matic counts down, and then whenever it reaches 0 seconds remaining, it changes to "ready." From there, when the cron job is run, it makes WP-o-Matic post the feed items to WordPress.

  So, it makes sense to keep WP-o-Matic at 30 minutes (minimum - otherwise you could be abusing the feeds). Make the cron job run more often, though, because WP-o-Matic won't check the feed or post feed items if the countdown is still running.

  So, back to the experiment -- the cron job ran again at 3:30, and since WP-o-Matic was "ready," the feed item was posted. This is 3 1/2 hours after the last item was posted.

  So, the real issue appears to be that WP-o-Matic tacks on 3 hours. Additionally, the feed item that was posted inherited the post time from when the cron job ran (instead of the time in the feed), but that's really a separate ticket. Without that bug, I could live with this one.

  Marcus, it sounds like you've got things setup like I do, except for some reason your cron job isn't running. Try this: click 'Options' and enable cron. Then, copy the cron URL (and only the cron URL) to your clipboard. It's listed under 'WebCron-ready URL'.

  Get WP-o-Matic to the point where it's "ready" - you might have to wait 3+ hours. I'd suggest starting the countdown, and then walking away for a few hours. Post a new item to your feed in the meantime, so there's something for WP-o-Matic to post (I'm using Twitter, so I made a new Twitter post at this point). When it's at "ready," paste the URL into your web browser, and hit enter.

  Now, go back to your blog. Did WP-o-Matic make a new post successfully? It should have, and the countdown restarted if you go back to your WP-o-Matic dashboard.

  If it did make a new post, you're having an issue with cron itself. My Dreamhost web panel has a cron function, with the option of sending the cron output to an email address - that really helped with the initial troubleshooting (the first URL I was giving cron was bad, but suppressing the output meant that I didn't get any errors). If your web panel doesn't offer cron configuration and the ability to send you cron's output, then you'll need to use SSH to accomplish the same thing.

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  Marcus November 20th, 2008 @ 02:14 PM

  I tested what you did and got similar results. Thanks for the tips.

  Here is what I ended up doing:

  I turned on Unix Cron and used the Cron command starting with "/user/bin/cron/..."

  I set the timer in the Cron job for five hours and it runs when it is supposed to. WPOMatic is posting the items when it runs. After the first posts WPOMatic was running a 4 hour countdown (adds an hour for my frequency option set at 1 hour), but this is ignored and the cron job runs on the server at the correct time and WPOMatic posts them. Then the 4 hour countdown starts again. I guess I can live with that since it doesn't effect anything.

  If I turn off unix cron, it starts fetching several times a minute. Not sure why....but I am just using the unix cron anyway to be safe.

  Thanks Flammable for the help!

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  Marcus November 20th, 2008 @ 02:19 PM

  Sorry that cron command is "/usr/bin/curl/..."

  doh

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  ronin-22554 (at lighthouseapp) November 21st, 2008 @ 11:10 AM

  :)

  So - you're saying that the countdown is ignored, and the feed items are posted whenever cron runs?

  Seems like my install waits for the countdown to reach 0, then posts the feed items whenever cron runs next (then the countdown begins again).

  Looks like you're also having the same issue with 3 hours being added to whatever rate you set in WP-o-Matic.

• 

  Ricardo Rauch April 15th, 2010 @ 08:50 AM

  • Assigned user changed from “Guillermo Rauch” to “Ricardo Rauch”

  [bulk edit]