RSS Poster Robot.....still not working

[JohnnieOO]

Hey gurus,
I have a new 4.2.1 install. One of my first tasks was to add RSS feeds through the RSS poster robot. The feeds are actually updated every few minutes and I have the RSS Poster Robot instructed to check the feeds every 20 mins (30 mins on some). At best, the feeds are checked by the robot once per day (though some days they don't check).
The feeds do update anytime the "run scheduled task now". BTW, I installed some of the RSS feeds in RSS Poster Robot on a 3.8.7 forum on same server, the feeds updated normally.

There are no errors logged on the server and there are no known errors in the scheduled task log (not sure what they would look like). I have uninstalled VBulletin and re-installed, recreated the RSS feeds and still no updates. As best as I can tell, the RSS poster robot is not checking the feeds, period.

Any suggestions? Is there a way to force the RSS check with Cron? Never messed with Cron Jobs but some of my research is pointing me there, I just don't know how to go about that.

Thanks,
Johnnie

[Lynne]

Did you check to verify the Scheduled Tasks are running? How many RSS feeds are you running at a time? Does it work if you only run one of the feeds?

[JohnnieOO]

Thanks, Lynne,
Other tasks (apparently default tasks because I didn't set them up) are running. These include digests, "email processing", paid subscriptions updated, XML sitemap (i did turn this on), etc....all of those are running. I have about 15 RSS feeds by different users. I have tried 1 feed, two feeds, adjusting the check times and resetting 'last checked". Interestingly, within the last 18 hours, the feeds did get automatically checked two times about 4 hours apart, but they are set to check every 20 mins.

FWIW, my vB 3.8.7 RSS Poster Robot on the same server is working flawlessly, even with some of the same RSS feeds. The only change to the 4.2.1 new install is this "mod" - https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=272295 with the "rotate" option.

php version is 5.2.17

Johnnie

[Lynne]

How often does the Scheduled Task run? (By default, it runs every 10 minutes.)

Try turning off all but one feed for a day. See if it runs. If it doesn't, try a different feed for a day. Repeat. If just one feed causes issues, then none of them will run.

[JohnnieOO]

The RSS feeds are programmed for every 30 mins (some are 20mins, this was an attempt to force them to go). In the scheduled task manager it looks like the RSS Poster is set for every 10mins (I just set all of the feeds to 10).
I have previously turned the feeds on and off like you said and I could not get any single feed to update/get checked, regularly. I am going to retry this, again, over the next day or so.

I even took one of the problem RSS feeds from my 4.2.1 board and placed it exactly in a 3.8.7 board on the same server. It was checked every 20 mins as instructed.
Over the past day on the problem board it has been checking about every 5 hours, on average (sometimes 1 hour, sometimes 7 hours).

[Lynne]

I would suggest disabling your mods and then trying this. It should work on your vb4 board unless something is modified.

[Ba'al]

Do you have any anti-links Mods running, they will do what you say is happening.

[JohnnieOO]

Ba'al, - no

OK, maybe this a real stupid question, but I'll ask anyway. Shouldn't the poster Robot post all the time? I've now wiped the site clean, installed a new 3.8.7 in a NEW directory and with a NEW database. The RSS poster robot still does not work unless I punch "run scheduled task now". Before I wiped it all clean, I was noticing the poster seemed to update more often if there was web traffic. So my question is.....is web traffic required to allow the poster robot to post?

Johnnie

[kh99]

So my question is.....is web traffic required to allow the poster robot to post?

Johnnie


Yes. Site traffic is required for any of the scheduled tasks to run.

[JohnnieOO]

Thanks kh99, I'd never have guessed that.
Since I am building this site from scratch, I was hoping to use the RSS Poster Robot to build some content in the forum, however, if it won't update without traffic, I have a "catch-22". No content to build traffic and no traffic to build content.

Is there any other way to get the RSS Poster Robot to automatically update?

Thanks,

Johnnie

[snakes1100]

Manually run the scheduled task in the task manager in the admincp.

[kh99]

Thanks kh99, I'd never have guessed that.
Since I am building this site from scratch, I was hoping to use the RSS Poster Robot to build some content in the forum, however, if it won't update without traffic, I have a "catch-22". No content to build traffic and no traffic to build content.

Is there any other way to get the RSS Poster Robot to automatically update?

Thanks,

Johnnie

It is possible to get a scheduled task to run via an actual cron job (if you have access to that on your server). If I remember, you just need to set it up to run cron.php. It's been discussed before but I don't remember exactly where.

Otherwise, it might be possible to set something up on your home computer that will automatically access some pages on your site periodically.

ETA: here's a thread where the cron thing was discussed: www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=288590 . There's not much in that thread but it has links to some others. (You probably need to be logged in at vbulletin.com to see the ones that link there).