Auto-Retrieval/Synchronization Issue

@megank92 I think this may the same issue as the previous poster. Please can you try checking your cache to see that it’s cleared – and also you can click on the Clear Cache button in the Advanced Tab to force through recent changes.

The Billing part is just to allow you to make more than 5 or so requests in total; it doesn’t change the data frequency or relevance.

Normally, you can leave this collect the reviews normally over time using the data sent by the Places API (this is not always current to the day).

Let me know if this resolves the issue for you?

Hi @designextreme I’ll give this a try, thanks. Will I have to clear the cache every time I want to update the reviews? I was hoping this could be automated for the client and it would automatically sync without having to clear cache. Is this the case?

@megank92 You don’t need to do this manually – the data will refresh when new relevant reviews are available through the API.

Page caching will store complete versions of the page and update the content at regular intervals. There is a balance between current information and speed – or you can disable this aspect of the cache for the reviews page. I think it’s all about the balance you want to achieve.

In my other plugin here: We’re Open!, I’ve added an immediate call to refresh the data. I haven’t had feedback of its effectiveness, but if people like it, I may introduce this functionality here.

Hi @designextreme – thank you! How are new, relevant reviews identified by the API? I know how new reviews are categorized but what constitutes a “relevant” review?

So if I have the “Update Frequency” set to hourly, if a new review is published on Google it will show on the website without me having to manually go in and “clear cache?” If so, about how long will it take to show up?

@megank92 You can see what is received by the plugin by checking the Retrieved Data tab – this is the last successful collection through the Places API.

If you want to have the most recent/relevant review, then set the ordering to either Relevance Descending (default) or Date Descending. Sometimes the newest reviews are not actual the most relevant. Google does its own decision – but it usually mirrors the reviews listed in the search results.

Updates typically come through between an hour to 36 hours, usually within 6 hours. I haven’t compiled exact statistics for this yet, but it may be worth pursuing. There is no need to manually do anything going forwards.