Scheduling (for nerds)

Wp-cron is a job scheduler that Wordpress uses to perform repetitive tasks (ie. automatic plugin updates, trash cleaning, etc.)

The funny thing about WordPress crons (wp-cron) is... well, they're not crons at all.

WordPress crons are a way of scheduling tasks, much like Unix crons, but instead of being run at set intervals, they are triggered by website visitors.

This means that when your WordPress website isn't receiving any traffic, your cron jobs won't run - unless special steps are taken. This is less than ideal for a website that is trying to stay in sync with the Phorest API on a regular interval.

Unix crons, on the other hand, run independently of website traffic and are executed at specific intervals determined by the system administrator.

The biggest difference between the two is the way they are triggered, with Unix crons being triggered by the system and WordPress crons being triggered by website activity.

Some hosting providers have a workaround for this by providing site owners an option to have them "ping" their site (more specifically, the /wp-cron.php URI endpoint) to effectively visit the site every minute or so causing any due crons to execute.

Because Mycelia's scheduled syncing depends on wp-cron.php out of the box, this an important step to consider.

But if your hosting provider doesn't - we have you covered.

You can write a Unix cron to execute Mycelia syncing directly. This isn't always possible depending on where your site is hosted - but it's worth checking in with your hosting provider to see if they support it.

To accomplish this you can use wp-cli. The first method is to trigger all crons that are due in WordPress. This requires that Scheduled sync is enabled in the Mycelia settings.

Once you've opened your cron editor (ie. crontab -e), here's an example of a cron you can add that runs every 5 minutes:

*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/wp cron event run --due-now

The second method is to call the Mycelia wp-cli command directly:

*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/wp mycelia sync

Bare in mind, you may want to disable Scheduled sync option in the Mycelia settings if you are using the second method both cron types will be doing the same thing, increasing server load unnecessarily.

Also, you may need to change the path to your wp-cli executable ("/usr/bin/wp" in the example). You can check the path to your executable by running "which wp-cli".

Bonus for nerds: There is a third method, and you may have noticed. If you select "self-managed" cron a new value appears in the status window with a title Cron trigger. You can set your job runner (or even uptime monitor) to ping that URL on whatever interval you prefer. If the event is due, it will run. If not, it won't. As one might expect :D 

To work out Unix cron-style intervals (other than 5 minutes show above), Crontab Guru is a great resource.