Force Auto Sync to Run

What do I need to provide to make your life easier so that it doesn’t take up too much of your time?

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by evanworldorder.

Hi,

thanks for your post, and sorry for the trouble.

You are referring to the TablePress Extension here, right? Then, at first, we should try to make the auto import work.

First: Do the configured URLs (or other import source0 work with the manual import?

Then, the WordPress Cron job system plays a role. This is what triggers many things “in the background”, like running automatic upgrade checks, publishing schedules posts, etc.
These cron jobs require active site visitors (as these are triggering them in the background). So, for example caching plugins can cause problems here.
One idea (if the server and the service plan with the web host company supports them) is to use a real server cronjob, which can be more stable. The setup is slightly different for each company, but here’s a fairly common set up guide:
https://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/setup-cron-job.htm
Also, you can try to use plugins like https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/core-control/ or https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/wp-cron-control/ to fix issues with the cron system.

Such plugins would technically also offer the option to run a cron job (which would trigger the auto import) with a button click – but I don’t think you’d really need that if the automatic imports work.

Regards,
Tobias

Hi Tobias.

I followed the tutorial at https://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/setup-cron-job.htm and this is what it looks like:

I also updated the PHP memory limit to 512M as suggested.

I can manually import tables by downloading the google sheet as a csv > importing as csv > and then replacing the table (for some reason it doesn’t work when i append?)

The auto import function is still not working.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by evanworldorder.

Hi,

from what I can see in the screenshot, there’s at least a space missing after doing_wp_cron. Also, I recommend to have this run every day and not just on weekdays (the 1-5 on the left side).

After that, please try to find out with the other mentioned plugins whether the cron jobs are now running stable.

Regards,
Tobias

Hi Tobias. Good catch on the space! Crazy how one could miss that…

I still think something is wrong. I installed both plugins, the first one was a bit confusing so I opted for the 2nd. How do I test to know I am doing this correctly? I’ve still waited 15 minutes, I’ve tested it in different methods with spaces, I’ve refreshed the page in different browsers to act as a visitor, and what the plugin and video suggests for setup and I am still not getting anything.

Is there any information I can provide you with that can help you to understand my situation better?

I just want to note that I am attempting to sync the table with a google sheet. Is it possible my URL is incorrect? I don’t get why it would be because I can manually import it just fine with the same URL.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/MY_CUSTOM_GOOGLE_SHEETS_URL/

This is the example URL. I noticed there are some URL’s that have specific syntax at the end of the custom part of the link. Could this be a reason?

Cron Jobs and Cron Settings

Text of cron jobs
wget -q -o - https://chulavistacoins.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron >/dev/null 2>&1
wget -q "https://chulavistacoins.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron&82cf03d705dcf546c535c43b944aacbb"

Also, I did have W3 Cache enabled (a caching plugin). I have since disabled it.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by evanworldorder.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by evanworldorder.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by evanworldorder.

Hi,

the Google Sheets URL does indeed not look like others. You should try finding a URL that will directly deliver a CSV file (as that’s the best format for import), instead of the “normal” editing user interface. This should be possible by publicly sharing the spreadsheet, to get those extra HTML parameters. It should in the end be a link URL similar to

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/<YOUR_DOCUMENT_ID>/export?format=csv

The cron configuration looks fine. In that Cron plugin, do you see a list of all cron jobs that are configured in WordPress? Do their “last run” times change?

Regards,
Tobias

Hi Tobias. So, what ended up working was disabling everything and re-enabling them and undoing all the steps of the “cron”. I see the autosync is running now.

However, I am having another problem. I have since migrated this site to Pantheon. On it’s original server, tablepress specifically is giving me a white screen. On Pantheon, it is showing me all the Javascript code.

You can see it live here:

https://dev-chula-vista-coins.pantheonsite.io/

Or a Screenshot

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by evanworldorder.

Hi,

good to hear that the auto update is working now! The problem with that JavaScript code being visible in the table is because you are not yet using the correct import URL from Google Sheets. Can you maybe post the URL that you are using?

Regards,
Tobias

Tobias, thank you so much for working through this with me.

Question: do you think you might be able to increase the auto’sync feature in the future? Or is there a reason why the max is 15 mins? Can it potentially cause conflicts?

Thank you.

Hi,

the 15 minutes were indeed chosen as a balance between “how often are auto imports necessary?” and “how much load can the server handle?”. This decision (in some way actually coming from WordPress) is however already a few years old, so that modern sites and servers could probably indeed be fine with smaller intervals, like 5 minutes, if they only have a few tables configured for auto update.
So, do you really need such short intervals?

And if you post that import URL (or send it my email, the address is in the main plugin file “tablepress.php”), I’ll try to find out what’s going on there.

Regards,
Tobias