Auto Facebook import not working

[Justin Armstrong]

Events are getting imported manually, but not automatically. I have the Facebook plugin configured to automatically publish the events, but nothing is happening at the scheduled time.

Not related to theme or other plugins.

How do I fix this?

• This topic was modified 10 years ago by Justin Armstrong.

[George]

Hey Justin,

I’m glad that the manual importing works, at least—I do not have problems with scheduled imports so am wondering if you can share some information here to help us investigate this more closely:

1. Can you post your system information to this thread? Here’s how → https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/sharing-sys-info/

2. You say, “Not related to theme or other plugins.” What were the specific steps you went through to determine this?

3. How much traffic does your website get? This may sound like an odd question, but is indeed related; WordPress does not offer true cron jobs, it only sets a flag at intervals so that when someone visits the site, if that flag is set, then an action is performed.

So an “hourly” cron job with WordPress is not really an hourly cron job; it means a flag is set every hour, and if someone visits the site within that hour, then the action is performed (i.e. Facebook event importing). But if no visitors arrive, then the action is not performed.

Do you have many frequent visitors to the site? Or other than yourself (or the team building out the website) is it still not actively visited?

Thank you!
George

[Justin Armstrong]

Thanks for the assistance, George.

1)

HOME URL http://dancecalendar.ca
SITE URL http://dancecalendar.ca/wp

INSTALL KEYS
I’ll leave these out, since this is public.

WORDPRESS VERSION 4.4.2
PHP VERSION 5.3.29
PLUGINS
bbPress version 2.5.8 by The bbPress Community(http://bbpress.org)
Event Tickets version 4.1.1 by Modern Tribe, Inc.(http://m.tri.be/28)
The Events Calendar PRO version 4.1.1 by Modern Tribe, Inc.(http://m.tri.be/20)
Fusion Core version 1.8.3 by ThemeFusion(http://theme-fusion.com)
Login Page Styler version 3.1.5 by Zia Imtiaz(http://web-settler.com/login-page-styler/)
Super Socializer version 7.5.6 by Team Heateor(https://www.heateor.com)
The Events Calendar: Facebook Events version 4.1 by Modern Tribe, Inc.(http://m.tri.be/22)
The Events Calendar: Filter Bar version 4.1 by Modern Tribe, Inc.(http://m.tri.be/25)
The Events Calendar: iCal Importer version 4.1.1 by Modern Tribe, Inc.(http://tri.be)
The Events Calendar version 4.1.1.1 by Modern Tribe, Inc.(http://m.tri.be/1x)

NETWORK PLUGINS –
MU PLUGINS –
THEME Avada Child
MULTISITE –
SETTINGS
schema-version = 4.1.1.1
recurring_events_are_hidden = exposed
previous_ecp_versions = Array
(
[0] => 0
[1] => 4.1.1
)
latest_ecp_version = 4.1.1.1
last-update-message = 4.1.1
disable_metabox_custom_fields = hide
pro-schema-version = 4.1.1
imported_post_status = Array
(
[csv] => publish
[facebook] => publish
[ical] => publish
)
fb_uids = 467719610105071
111042574415
500226675401
490693954419117
1677680629136080
245161325497073
256292761097522
18566208770
4891603986
131793653510883
155941281107425
265269613666246
fb_enable_GoogleMaps = 1
fb_auto_import = 1
fb_auto_frequency = hourly
fb_api_key = I REMOVED THIS
fb_api_secret = I REMOVED THIS
earliest_date = 2016-04-21 18:00:00
earliest_date_markers = Array
(
[0] => 75
)
latest_date = 2016-04-21 19:00:00
latest_date_markers = Array
(
[0] => 75
)
stylesheetOption = full
tribeEventsTemplate = default
tribeEnableViews = Array
(
[0] => list
[1] => month
[2] => week
[3] => day
[4] => map
[5] => photo
)
viewOption = month
tribeDisableTribeBar =
hideLocationSearch =
hideRelatedEvents =
week_view_hide_weekends =
monthEventAmount = 3
enable_month_view_cache =
dateWithYearFormat = F j, Y
dateWithoutYearFormat = F j
monthAndYearFormat = F Y
weekDayFormat = D jS
dateTimeSeparator = @
timeRangeSeparator = –
datepickerFormat = 0
tribeEventsBeforeHTML =
tribeEventsAfterHTML =
donate-link =
postsPerPage = 10
liveFiltersUpdate = 1
hideSubsequentRecurrencesDefault =
userToggleSubsequentRecurrences =
recurrenceMaxMonthsBefore = 12
recurrenceMaxMonthsAfter = 12
showComments = 1
showEventsInMainLoop =
eventsSlug = events
singleEventSlug = event
multiDayCutoff = 00:00
defaultCurrencySymbol = $
reverseCurrencyPosition =
embedGoogleMaps = 1
geoloc_default_geofence = 25
geoloc_default_unit = miles
embedGoogleMapsZoom = 10
debugEvents =
tribe_events_timezone_mode = event
tribe_events_timezones_show_zone =
organizer_venue_amalgamation = 1
WORDPRESS TIMEZONE
–
SERVER TIMEZONE
UTC
COMMON LIBRARY DIR
/home3/johanna/public_html/_websites/dancecalendar.ca/wp/wp-content/plugins/event-tickets/common/src/Tribe
COMMON LIBRARY VERSION
4.1

2) I tested by switching to a default theme (Twenty Fourteen, I believe), and disabling all non-Events Calendar plugins.

3) Currently no traffic at all. The site is under development.

I’m familiar with these types of pseudo-cron schedulers. I’m assuming the way it works is to delay the import for the scheduled duration (e.g. 1 hour), then wait till someone visits the site, and then to perform an import when they do. Is that correct?

My site is hosted at HostGator. I have cpanel access and can set up a cron job. Is there a way to activate the import directly?

[George]

Thank you for all of this information!

What you describe here is a correct summation of the WordPress “cron” jobs:

I’m assuming the way it works is to delay the import for the scheduled duration (e.g. 1 hour), then wait till someone visits the site, and then to perform an import when they do. Is that correct?

So what you describe here seems to be the culprit:

3) Currently no traffic at all. The site is under development.

You ask about setting up a “true” cron job through your cPanel, and this indeed may be possible. It’s something you’ll mostly have to work out with your web host directly; but from our end of things, it’s a bit tricky to do this programmatically outside the context of the plugin actions themselves. But I would recommend diving into your Facebook Importer plugin files to the class Tribe__Events__Facebook__Importer.

Tinker around with methods in that class like create_local_event(), and you might be able to pull off something more automatic and more “true” cron here.

Thank you,
George

[Support Droid]

This topic has not been active for quite some time and will now be closed.

If you still need assistance please simply open a new topic (linking to this one if necessary)
and one of the team will be only too happy to help.

[Author]

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