'sendnotice.php' has Deleted Ads?

Ronseal · January 15th, 2008, 09:50 AM

I'm sure this issue has been addressed before but I activated the sendnotice.php script yesterday and it ran overnight, however this morning I wake to find that about half my Ads have now disappeared. This includes one of my own Ads for which I have received no email and it had no expiry.

I'm under the impression the 'PP Classifieds' doesn't actually delete any Ads, so how can I reinstate my lost Ads? I've turned off the CronJob now in fear of what will happen next time it runs.

Many thanks!

Ronseal · January 15th, 2008, 10:06 AM

I'm just reading some other 'sendnotice' threads and would I be right in thinking that Ad's don't actually expire unless the 'sendnotice.php' cronjob is run?

In which case what I've seen last night is merely the cronjob running correctly and expiring/soft deleting Ads including my own (which I may have listed incorrectly), however I still didn't receive any email?

Chuck S · January 15th, 2008, 12:14 PM

If you did not recieve an email make sure your email is setup correctly in admin with a valid email and that your emails are not going into any spam filter. Also is your server setup to send php mail?

Yes the sendnotice cron will expire any ad meaning they are placed in the expired que in admin approve ads and will be deleted every two weeks when you visit admin.

Ronseal · January 15th, 2008, 03:44 PM

- My server is setup to send php mail.
- No email was found in my Junk Folders.

How do I view this Expired Queue that you have mentioned? Can I do this via the 'PP Classifieds' Admin panel somewhere?

Chuck S · January 15th, 2008, 03:50 PM

Yes in Admin => Approve Ads => Expired Que

As far as emails if sendnotice is ran you should see if you run it manually that it is sending emails or if you see errors then note them but we use a very simply php mail command which means your server must be setup to send php mail.

Ronseal · January 16th, 2008, 03:53 AM

Hi Chuck,
As far as the emails are concerned they appear to be sending correctly with no errors, but would I be correct in thinking that if an Ad had already expired by the time I ran the 'sendnotice.php' for the first time, my Ad merely deleted because it was beyond the time parameters applicable for sending a notification of expiry email?

I can't find the 'Admin => Approve Ads => Expired Que' option you've mentioned, however I do find 'Admin => Approve / Bulk Actions' but can't find any Expired Que in there. I just have an 'Approve Queue' and a list of all my Categories in the dropdown menu.

Cheers
Ron

Chuck S · January 16th, 2008, 07:51 AM

There would be an expired que if any ads where within the system that have not already been purged. If all your ads that where expired where older than 2 weeks old when you go to admin they are expired. Thats why its important to set this cron up. The emails sent are sent for ads expiring within 3 days. So users have the chance to extend them if they are not sold.

Ronseal · January 17th, 2008, 09:51 AM

Many thanks Chuck...

All understood now and 'sendnotice.php' appears to be working a treat!

Chuck S · January 17th, 2008, 10:27 AM

Have a good day glad to assist in your questions let me know if we can be of further assistance.

Ronseal · September 16th, 2008, 10:17 PM

One more question Chuck..... I'm not convinced my 'Classifieds - SendNotice' cron is running automatically. I can run it manually and it appears to work, however although I've set the job to 'Log Entries - Yes' when I try and check the vB log for the job it records nothing, not even my manual runs.

Got any pointers on this?

Many thanks
Ron

Chuck S · September 17th, 2008, 05:36 AM

I would suggest you run the cron task run under your servers cron setup and parameters. I can not say when or if it works under vbulletins little cron thing.

Ronseal · January 5th, 2009, 05:25 PM

Hi Chuck,
Okay I did what you said and asked for a little aid from my Hosting Company and they talked me through 'cpanal' and I now run the job via the following script:

Quote:

php -q /home/<Hosting Login>/public_html/classifieds/sendnotice.php

I've set the job to run three times a day and I receive an email with the print command stating it's "done...", to confirm it's run as specified, however my Ads are still expiring without email warning/notification, any ideas?

I'm running pp_classifieds version: 3.03

Many thanks
Ron

P.S: I've attached my unedited 'sendnotice.php' file but called it sendnotice.txt because .php files aren't allowed in your forum as attachments.

Chuck S · January 5th, 2009, 07:21 PM

Please do not post our php files publically thanks.

Are you sure your server is sending out mail? If the ads are expired the cron task is doing its job.

Ronseal · January 6th, 2009, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck S

If the ads are expired the cron task is doing its job.

Sounds logical enough so that's one problem solved I guess.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck S

Are you sure your server is sending out mail?

I assume the mail it's supposed to send will be to inform the recipient that their Advertisement in <my site's classifieds> is about to expire and would they like to renew it by linking the link shown OR delete it by clicking alternative link shown.

I asked my hosting to check for this about 30mins ago and they said they have no record of such emails being sent from my hosting server/account.

We're almost there in solving this I hope.

Ronseal · January 8th, 2009, 07:30 AM

I woke this morning to find I have a 'Renewal Notice' from the Classifieds as attached. So this is great news, emails are being sent however of the approx 10 Ads I've placed which have expired this is the first renewal noticed I've received, so although emails are working they are not working for all Ads where needed, any ideas Chuck?

Chuck S · January 8th, 2009, 07:51 AM

well that shows your sendnotice script is working and sending out emails. I would suggest you really verify with people that their emails are not ending up in their spam filters

Ronseal · January 8th, 2009, 08:08 AM

I class myself as the test case Chuck, as I said before I've placed approx 10 Ads which have expired and this is the first renewal noticed I've received.

All of the above expired Ad's which I have listed have been created for exactly the same clothing items but in different sizes; stating same duration, same price, same buy it now, same pictures.

I'll get back to the hosting and see if they have any ideas.

Chuck S · January 8th, 2009, 08:10 AM

well if you recieved an email it means the script is doing what it is meant to do. all we use is a simple PHP mail string. This means PHP mail must be working on the server so once the server sends out the emails little else can be done unless the host has ways to track them.

Ronseal · January 8th, 2009, 09:02 AM

Thanks for the info Chuck.

I've just got a reply from my Hosting and they've said that 51 emails we're sent out today from my pp_classifieds cron job and as I only have 176 posted Ads that's a huge mail shot proportion. (Although I find it hard to believe that over a quarter of my Classifieds Ads are going to expire in the next 4 days

)

So as you say, the cron appears to be working fine, however I'm still positive I've not personally received any renewals until today, and no they're not in my Junk Folder.

But alas, I'm very happy that mails are being sent so I'll stop worrying about it.

Thanks for the support Chuck, very much appreciated.

Cheers
Ron

Chuck S · January 8th, 2009, 10:04 AM

Ron not a problem have a good one. Yep if ads are expiring and emails are being sent then indeed the script is doing what it should be doing