Event Calendar not sending reminders

I am a novice, a complete layman, worse than a newb. I love Event Calendar except it is not sending out the set reminders. I'm not getting any error messages just no reminders. 

  • I really appreciate this help!!
    I have no idea if I added the correct things but I added two cron jobs. The first one seemed to immediately trigger sending back friend acceptance notifications but no calendar notifications.
    The second didn't seem to cause any event.

    this is the best I could without being able to send a screenshot. It seems that something is happening, alas just not yet with the event calendar,

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    path/to/phpbin path/to/elgg/elgg-cli cron -i hourly -q
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    /usr/bin/lwp-request -m GET -d https://homegardenbook.com/elgg2/cron/
    Edit Delete

  • Just got this error message via email. I apparently messed up your instructions. Also all the Event Calendar notifications seem to still be sitting in Message Que unsent although Classified and other notifications are going out fine now. Something I have wrong in the Event Calendar itself?

     

    Cron <homegard@webhosting2036> /usr/bin/lwp-request -m GET -d https://homegardenbook.com/elgg2/cron/

     
     
    Inbox
    x
     
     
     
    image

    (Cron Daemon) homegard@webhosting2036.is.cc via homegardenbook.com 

    3:00 PM (32 minutes ago)
     
     
    to admin
     
     
     
     
     

    /usr/local/cpanel/bin/jailshell: /usr/bin/lwp-request: No such file or directory

     
     
     
     
    image
    ReplyReply allForward
     
  • The folks at Interserver say this. It means nothing to me. Can you tell me what it is I should give to them? Please.

    "Hello,

    Please refer the following KB to know how to setup cron in cpanel : https://www.interserver.net/tips/kb/how-to-set-up-a-cron-job-in-cpanel/ .

    We can setup cron on your behalf for that we need the command for ELGG installation to be put in cron.

    Kind regards,

    Prakash N
    InterServer, Inc"

    Elgg has long since been installed.

  • Just got this from Interserver….

    "Hello,

    Adding a cronjob is something we can help you out. But we need to know the script which needs to run automatically.

    Kind regards,

    Sushma
    Interserver, Inc "

    I have no idea what to tell them...where it is...what it is called...what they mean. 

  • You almost did it right.

    But two things are important:

    1. Is the lwp-request tool installed on your server and if yes what's the path to the command? That's something you could ask the support. In the example I gave it's assumed that the tool is at the path /usr/bin/lwp-request. The path might be different on your server OR the lwp-request tool might not be installed. In the latter case the tool wget is probably available though - again it would be necessary to know the path to the command.
    2. The Url that triggers the jobs registered for a specific interval always contains the interval name at the end. In the CPanel example you posted this part is missing. For example, for the minute cron interval the Url is not https://homegardenbook.com/elgg2/cron/ but https://homegardenbook.com/elgg2/cron/minute.

    So, to get the jobs correctly set up you need to ask your support where the lwp-request tool is on your server or alternatively the wget tool. Either of them is necessary and you need to know the path to the command.

    Knowing the path you can set up the cronjobs for each interval.

    For example with wget the cronjobs would be

    * * * * * /usr/bin/wget --output-document=/dev/null https://homegardenbook.com/elgg2/cron/minute/ >/dev/null 2>&1
       
    */5 * * * * /usr/bin/wget --output-document=/dev/null https://homegardenbook.com/elgg2/cron/fiveminute >/dev/null 2>&1
       
    */15 * * * * /usr/bin/wget --output-document=/dev/null https://homegardenbook.com/elgg2/cron/fifteenmin >/dev/null 2>&1
       
    0,30 * * * * /usr/bin/wget --output-document=/dev/null https://homegardenbook.com/elgg2/cron/halfhour >/dev/null 2>&1
       
    0 * * * * /usr/bin/wget --output-document=/dev/null https://homegardenbook.com/elgg2/cron/hourly >/dev/null 2>&1
       
    0 0 * * * /usr/bin/wget --output-document=/dev/null https://homegardenbook.com/elgg2/cron/daily >/dev/null 2>&1
       
    0 0 * * 0 /usr/bin/wget --output-document=/dev/null https://homegardenbook.com/elgg2/cron/weekly >/dev/null 2>&1
       
    0 0 1 * * /usr/bin/wget --output-document=/dev/null https://homegardenbook.com/elgg2/cron/monthly >/dev/null 2>&1
       
    0 0 1 1 * /usr/bin/wget --output-document=/dev/null https://homegardenbook.com/elgg2/cron/yearly >/dev/null 2>&1

    And with lwp-request used instead the cronjobs would be almost the same with only the command slightly different, e.g. the minute cronjob command with wget would be

    /usr/bin/wget --output-document=/dev/null https://homegardenbook.com/elgg2/cron/minute/ >/dev/null 2>&1

    and with lwp-request

    /usr/bin/lwp-request -m GET -d https://homegardenbook.com/elgg2/cron/minute/ >/dev/null 2>&1

    You only need to make sure that the path provided for either lwp-request or wget is correct and that you use the correct cron interval in the last segment or the Url corresponding to the interval you set up in CPanel for this cronjob. And please include ALL parameters I've provided in the example. They are necessary to suppress log entries with could easiyl eat up your disc space otherwise.

    The message_queue plugin uses the fiveminute cron interval. So, you need to have the cronjob for this interval added before any Event Calendar reminders will get sent out.

  • Thank you so much for the lengthy help and your patience. Alas it is like a foreign language to me which is of course my fault not ELGGs or the plugin developers. I have clipped your response and pasted it into a reply to Interserver and maybe they understand and can do that which is needed although I think they are looking for a path or something to a command and may not read it.

    Here are two cron jobs installed on the cPanel already so one might assume that they are pointing to the correct place. If you might be able to figure the answer from them I would be so grateful.

     

    7 5 * * * php /home/homegard/public_html/humhub/protected/yii queue/run >/dev/null 2>&1 Edit     Delete
     
    47 5 * * * /opt/cpanel/ea-php72/root/usr/bin/php /home/homegard/public_html/humhub/protected/yii cron/run >/dev/null 2>&1 Edit     Delete
  • At the top of my cPanel Add Cron Jobs utility it says:

     

    PHP command examples:

    General example: /usr/local/bin/php /home/homegard/public_html/path/to/cron/script

    Domain-specific example: /usr/local/bin/ea-php99 /home/homegard/domain_path/path/to/cron/script In the above example, replace “ea-php99” with the PHP version assigned to the domain you wish to use. Look in the MultiPHP Manager for the actual PHP version assigned to a domain.

  • Here is the latest reply from the Interserver folks. I honestly don't know if that means that it is fixed and ready or not. None of the many reminders that are now days past due have been sent. Are they lost? The message que plugin says there are 9 unsent messages...it has said so since yesterday.

    Do I need to ask them to install the 5 minute Cron?

     

    Thanks again.....here's their latest reply....

    "Hello Ronald,

    Right now you have a couple of crons in your cPanel account already:
    http://i.is.cc/2i8K1YHp.png

    One of them will definitely not work at all:
    path/to/phpbin path/to/elgg/elgg-cli cron -i hourly -q

    It was probably one of the examples provided to you by some support guys (or forum suggestion), but this all must be translated into your specific setup.
    "path/to/phpbin" - apparently should exist on the server, in our case it's the default one: "/usr/bin/php"
    "path/to/elgg/elgg-cli" - should be "/home/homegard/public_html/elgg2"
    "cron -i hourly -q" - this part of the command looks OK.
    So together it would be:
    /usr/bin/php /home/homegard/public_html/elgg2 cron -i hourly -q


    However, one of the crons looks mostly correct (according to the info provided by you):
    /usr/bin/lwp-request -m GET -d https://homegardenbook.com/cron/minute/ >/dev/null 2>&1

    The mentioned command is correct but the time definition is not. The "minute" cronjob must be running every minute (using a " * "), not just the first minute every hour (which is currently set). I have corrected this.

    If there is a need for adding all the other crons as it's mentioned in the provided example - let us know. Or you can add them as well accordingly.

    We'll look forward to your update.

    Kind regards,

    Dmitry Oronov
    InterServer, Inc"

     

  • In your postings the texts in red are examples for commands (each with some parameters). The string part up to the first blank character is the command (including the path) and everything after it are parameters.

    So

    /usr/local/bin/php

    would be an example for a command and

    /usr/local/bin

    would be the path to the command (php executable in this case) on the server file system.

    Now in case of the Elgg cronjobs the command would be either wget or lwp-request (depending on what is available on the server) and what you need to figure out is where these commands are to be found on the server's filesystem. I assumed the path would be /usr/bin as on my server. Maybe on your server the path is rather /usr/local/bin. Test it or ask the support.

     

  • Forget about the elgg-cli cronjobs. That's another possibility (but from personal experience I don't recommend it if you don't know what you are doing).

    If they have added the minute cronjob with lwp-request let them add the corresponding cronjobs for the other intervals in the same way. And yes, you need definitely the fiveminute job (and probably some others, too). You can check in the admin area (Administer - Statistics - Cron) of your Elgg site when the cronjobs have run last. If using my Croncheck plugin you can also see on the same page which intervals have handlers registered (meaning: you need these cronjobs in any case for your site to fully work).