Tables not auto-updating

Hi,

thanks for your post, and sorry for the trouble.

For how many tables are you trying the import at once? Can you please try by starting with just one or two tables “active” for the auto import?
Also, does the site have regular (not-logged-in) visitors that can actually trigger the auto import? This is for example not the case if you are using page caching so that the PHP code of WordPress is not run when a user visits the site.

Regards,
Tobias

Hi

I am trying to update only two tables right now.

I dont understand your second paragraph. Are you saying that it gets triggered only by non-logged-in users? It is still under production, so it has almost zero regular visitors as of now. I tried triggering it by logging out, by force refresh (Ctrl + F5), but it is still not updating somehow.

Hi,

yes, that’s how the WordPress Cron mechanism works.

Regular, non-logged in visitors to the site trigger a small check in WordPress, whether there are any “events” scheduled that need to be triggered now. When that happens, WordPress runs the functions that “belong” to this event.
If there are no visitors, this does not happen, and therefore the tables can not be auto-updated, for example.
To play with this, I suggest to open a “Private” browsing session (available in all modern browsers) and surf a little bit on the site, to try to trigger this as a non-logged in user.

Regards,
Tobias

Nope. No luck. :-/

Just to be clear, this is how I installed the extension –
(a) Got the code from your website.
(b) Copy pasted it in wp-content/plugins folder.
(c) Activated it using the dashboard.

Any other solutions?

Hi,

no that’s the correct procedure.
Can you check e.g. with the “Cron Module” of the Core Control plugin https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/core-control/ whether the cron job is registered properly, and whether it runs if triggered manually?

Regards,
Tobias

Yes, it runs perfectly when triggered manually.

Some relevant details –

Hook to run :
tablepress_table_auto_import_hook
Hooked functions: Array() No Args

Hi,

ok, that’s a good sign. Do you now see the “Last imported” time on the “Import” screen, after triggering the manual execution of the cron job?

Regards,
Tobias

Yes, I do.

Hi,

ok, that means that the import process runs through fine.
If the manual trigger for the cron job works, this can only mean that he automatic triggering is not working for some reason.

Does this happen on your local dev environment or is this a live server?
Could something else interfere with the WP Cron job system?

Regards,
Tobias

This is a live server. Never tried it with local environment.
I am not sure if something can interfere with WP Cron system. This is the first time I am using wordpress.

Hi,

ok…

If possible, I’d like to take a direct look at this on your site. Could you therefore please create a temporary admin account for me and send me the details via email (the address is in the main plugin file “tablepress.php”)? That way, I can investigate this directly. I will then install the current development version of TablePress and also try to make some changes to the Extension. Maybe that helps.
Otherwise, I’m kind of out of ideas here…

Regards,
Tobias

Hi

I have sent you the relevant details on the email id you mentioned. Thanks a lot for your help.

Hi,

thanks! I have received the email with the account details.
Unfortunately, because I’ll be on a company business trip this week, I probably won’t have time to take a look until Wednesday or so.

Regards,
Tobias

Hi,

sorry for the long delay. I now finally had the time to take a look at this on your server.
First, I installed the latest development version and a slightly updated version of the Auto Import Extension. That worked fine, and the import runs through if it is triggered manually with the “Core Control” plugin. However, the automatic triggering of the cron requests does not seem to work on the site in general. If you take a look at the list in the Core Control plugin, you can see that all registered cron jobs are long overdue (some even since January) and have not been triggered.

This makes me think that this is related to a server issue (maybe Windows server need some special configuration?), or maybe to your theme.
When searching for cron issues with your theme, I found this thread in the forums of the theme developer company (for a different theme though):
https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/tables-not-auto-updating

I can’t read the replies by the developers, unfortunately, but this seems to indicate that there’s indeed something going on with the theme or the server, regarding cron jobs ??

Regards,
Tobias

Hi Tobias

Thanks for your help. Is there an easy way to convert this wordpress cron job to an actual cron job, which I can schedule on my server?