New Cron Jobs: volunteers needed for testing

[Vincent Wright]

Greetings all,

since the overwhelming majority of people experience all kinds of problems with cron jobs we decided to reimplement it. I am [Vincent] in charge of doing it.

So far I have created Broken Link Checking cron and almost done with Reciprocal Link Checking cron.

Special note to BryanEx: I have included "Valid Recip==Featured" mod in the new implementation. Guys, please don't treat this as BryanEx has preferences or the like: he is just a veteran of "fix-the-cron-jobs" battle, that's why I want to draw his attention.

Friends, I need your help in testing it. Of course, I have tested it on an online directory but only with basic scenarios. And I need volunteers to test it on some real directories.

I promise to assist you with setting it all up and implementing all the necessary changes. In return I need your feedback on how it performs. I need your bug reports, improvement suggestions, etc. I need your ideas.

[snerd]

Send it on this way! I had my broken links cron working earlier until I updated it, now it doesn't work anymore. Give me a download link or send zip to admin at oklahoma-online dot com

Thanks!

[Vincent Wright]

Greetings snerd,

congrats to be the first volunteer!

Well, I need some time to write short manual on how to install the new cron job set and compile it all into one package. I will send you the package in a couple of hours.

Thanks.

[snerd]

Okie Dokes, thanks. I'll be fast asleep in 2 hours, but will put it through the paces this afternoon. :sleeping:

[Vincent Wright]

Package sent, please check your email.

[sdawkins]

I will test it as well if you would lik.

[Vincent Wright]

I will test it as well if you would lik.

Where should I send the package to?

[sdawkins]

Where should I send the package to?

shadey33@gmail.com

Thanks.

[Vincent Wright]

I have just sent an email with cron job package attached.

[safatweb]

send it to me too

study77[[@]]gmail.com

[sdawkins]

I have it installed, does it run on it's own or do I have to start it?
I put in a broken link to test it and so far it is not showing up????

[Vincent Wright]

to sdawkins

I have just sent you an email with detailed description on how to set up crons in CPanel. Well, I found a little mistake in my readme.txt. Well, /usr/sbin/php is probably not correct path to PHP command line engine on your server. This might be the problem.

Anyway, when setting up cron jobs you can enter email address where cron output will be sent to. If the script fails for some reason it will output an error and this will be sent to that email address. If you haven't entered an email address please do and we can see if there is a problem.

WARNING! If you set it up to run once in 5 minute and there is a problem running the script you will get an email from the cron job every 5 minute. You can do the following: enter an email, than wait till the script is executed, resend the email to me, and then clear the email field to stop receiving the emails.

[Vincent Wright]

to safatweb

Please wait a little bit -- I have to modify readme.txt a little bit. I will send you the package within an hour.

[sdawkins]

Hi Vincent, the problem was my path to php.
It appears to be working now, as I have two broken links showing!

[Vincent Wright]

Sounds good to me :cool-yo:

Let's see what others have to say about it's performance.

P.S.

If you don't need reciprocal checking -- it's ok. But if you do use it that would be great if you try reciprocal.php as well.

[Vincent Wright]

to safatweb

I have just sent you the package with new cron jobs. Please read readme.txt first.

[snerd]

Okay, I got it set up and it seems to be running okay. So far only 1 broken link found.

On my server, php scripts will run from any directory, so I removed the /usr/sbin/ from the path statement.

Thanks Vincent!

[Bryan Ex]

HEY!!! Wait for me Vincent... email addy is on it's way via PM. I hadn't been paying much attention to these forums of late so I'm a bit behind the times here but I do have a very thorough beta testing process so if there's a glitch I will find it for you with the one exception of alternate server configurations.

[Vincent Wright]

I have just sent you the package. Looking forward to your feedback.

[snerd]

Howdy Ho................. the broken links checking is working fine business. But I don't see a function in the new cron to update pagerank. Is this still done?

[Vincent Wright]

You see, I have split one cron file into several ones to perform specific task: broken.php for checking broken links and reciprocal.php for checking reciprocal links. So far only those 2 crons are available.

I HAVEN'T implemented new cron for updating PageRank. But I'm working on it.

[snerd]

You see, I have split one cron file into several ones to perform specific task: broken.php for checking broken links and reciprocal.php for checking reciprocal links. So far only those 2 crons are available.

I HAVEN'T implemented new cron for updating PageRank. But I'm working on it.
Ah, I see. That makes sense. :good:

[safatweb]

I have updated. and had some mistakes in the path.

Fixed & waiting for result. as i kepr once a day schedule

[Vincent Wright]

Ok, looking forward to the results.

[sdawkins]

Vincent --

The reciprocal = featured is now working. However, there are some things I need to change with it if possible.

1. I do not want the link to be featured forever, how would I put an expiration of the featured.

2. How do I add this to my suggest link template? I tried before and it required paypal.


That's it I guess!

Thanks,
Sharon

[mariancon]

Vincent, send me the package also.

[Vincent Wright]

to mariancon

Sent. I need your feedback as well.

[Vincent Wright]

to sdawkins

1. I do not want the link to be featured forever, how would I put an expiration of the featured.

Yes, making a link featured for limited period makes sense to me. Well, I'm afraid to automate this I will have to create another cron ("Oh no! No crons anymore":blink:), or just add this check to one of existing crons.

Well, we have to think about how to better implement this -- I mean so that's obvious and easy to use. My suggestion is to add another option in Cronjob Configuration like "Featured Duration (in days)" where you set number of days this or that link can stay featured. Settings this value to 0 would mean that links will stay featured forever.

Another question has just came to my mind. What happens once featured period expires and featured flag is reset? Will the link ever get a chance to become featured again? If yes, when and under what conditions? We have to answer these questions before I can do anything about your request.

Guys, if you are also interested in what sdawkins suggested please share your ideas too.


2. How do I add this to my suggest link template? I tried before and it required paypal.

Sincerely, I don't quite understand what you mean. What do you want to add to suggest link template? Could you please explain?

Thanks.

[sdawkins]

Sorry Vincent,

I wanted to add it to plans, but not a pay plan, when someone is on the suggest link page. I tried adding it, but when someone used that option it required Paypal.

Thank you for investigating the other question.

[Vincent Wright]

Well,

my suggestion is that you create a separate thread where we can discuss the issue with suggest link page, since it is unrelated to cron jobs as I understand it.

And I still don't get it, sorry.

You say:


I wanted to add it to plans ...


What exactly do you want to add?

Thanks.

[zamollxis]

Hi Vincent,

Please send me too the new cron jobs.

[Vincent Wright]

Where should I send it to?

[Vincent Wright]

I should have written this before :sorry: but for some reason I didn't. Well, here is what is currently implemented in the new crons.

Broken Link Checking

The cron only checks if the link is valid or not. Nothing else.

Room for Improvement:

1. Change status in some way (if at all necessary)
2. Send notification email (to admin, partner or link owner; again, if at all necessary).
3. Introduce a "reported broken" counter for links that reside on servers that are unavailable for some reason (while the link is being checked).
3. Anything else

Reciprocal Link Checking

The cron only checks if a page on partner site (the one that recip leads to) contains a link to your site and sets `recip_valid` field to either 1 if valid, or 0 if not valid.

Room for Improvement:

1. Send notification email to admin/partner.
2. Anything else.

You see guys, I need your ideas, suggestions, etc.

[sdawkins]

Well,

my suggestion is that you create a separate thread where we can discuss the issue with suggest link page, since it is unrelated to cron jobs as I understand it.

And I still don't get it, sorry.

You say:



What exactly do you want to add?

Thanks.


Hi Vincent,

When someone wants to suggest a link, instead of checking free, sponsored, etc, I would like one of the options to be -- Featured = Reciprocal.

[Vincent Wright]

First of all, this doesn't seem to relate to crons unless you leave it up to cron to decide if to mark featured if recip is valid.

Currently cron applies this mod to ALL the links in your directory. You cannot enable this feature for some links and disable for the others. And this is exactly what must be done if you need to put a [optional] check box on your suggest link page.

[sdawkins]

So, I will post something asking how to add an option w/o requiring Paypal in another thread. Then I can just manually add the links after checking via the reciprocal link checker :)

[mariancon]

The cron only checks if the link is valid or not. Nothing else.


broken.php is not checking headers that are valid, specified in Link Checking settings?

[mariancon]

Reciprocal Link Checking

The cron only checks if a page on partner site (the one that recip leads to) contains a link to your site and sets `recip_valid` field to either 1 if valid, or 0 if not valid.

Reciprocal don't work at all for me - I removed the field "Reciprocal url" from suggest link page (http://www.esyndicat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5510). Still, some domains included reciprocal but reported "not reciprocal".

[naplesdave]

Hi there!

Sorry to jump into this thread - seems to be active and everyone appears to understand what is going on.

I didn't find anywhere how to use the cron's in eSyndiCat. Yes, there's a menu with a check mark, but what results should we expect? Why would we check it? When would we need to check it?

If the menu says - Gets link status (checking for broken links) - well, okay, that's checked - now what? Do we need to create a cron? Where? To cron.php?

I don't want to and shouldn't have to search through hours of forum posts to find the answer, right? Maybe there IS documentation and I'm just lost... if so, please help me. I'm a quick learner. :-)

Thanks for this forum... just want to get up and running without having to reinvent the wheel.

Regards,
Dave in Naples

[Vincent Wright]

to mariancon


Reciprocal don't work at all for me - I removed the field "Reciprocal url" from suggest link page (http://www.esyndicat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5510). Still, some domains included reciprocal but reported "not reciprocal".


The fact that some links include reciprocal url does not mean this url is valid. Let me explain: there are several cases when reciprocal link is reported as invalid, and only ONE case when it is reported as valid.

1. If recip url is well-formed but the cron is unable to connect to the server, or the the server returns status other than 200 [OK], 301 or 302 [redirect], the cron reports recip url as invalid.

2. If cron is able to connect to the server and the page exists (status 200, 301, 302), but fails to find a link back to your site it reports recip url as invalid.

3. Only if cron is able to connect to the server, the page exists, and a link back to your site eixsts, the cron reports this recip url as valid.


broken.php is not checking headers that are valid, specified in Link Checking settings?


The new cron ignores the settings in Link Checking, since the only valid headers are 200, 301, and 302. A special case that needs some more processing is when the server is not available -- in some cases this is permanent error (thus broken link), in others -- temporary (thus not broken).

[Vincent Wright]

to naplesdave

Unfortunately we don't have a manual. So let me answer your questions.

I didn't find anywhere how to use the cron's in eSyndiCat. Yes, there's a menu with a check mark, but what results should we expect? Why would we check it? When would we need to check it?


Checking those radio buttons won't automatically enable crons. You have to set up crontabs in your CPanel. You only need this if you want the script to automatically check broken/recip links.


If the menu says - Gets link status (checking for broken links) - well, okay, that's checked - now what? Do we need to create a cron? Where? To cron.php?


Yes, you have to set up crontabs in your CPanel. My suggestion is that you install the new cron job package. This is in beta now, but I fix all the bugs and try to implement customers' suggestions. Well, you can give me your email where I should send the package to.


I don't want to and shouldn't have to search through hours of forum posts to find the answer, right? Maybe there IS documentation and I'm just lost... if so, please help me. I'm a quick learner. :-)


Sorry for that -- there is no comprehensive manual. The new cron job set includes readme.txt file where you can find detailed instructions on how to install the package and set up crontabs in your CPanel.

[safatweb]

yes its working fine, :)
but one problem. some sites takes time open, so that too aded in broken link.

how to fix that one

[naplesdave]

Thanks Vincent - You can send it to dave at davejackson dot com. Thanks!

[Vincent Wright]

to naplesdave

Sent.

[Vincent Wright]

to safatweb


but one problem. some sites takes time open, so that too aded in broken link.


What is the Link Header value of those sites? Is it Not Available?

[redeye]

Sent PM for cron test Vincent.

I "think" my cron (the old one) is working - as in it runs and I get an email with the results. My problem is that it doesn't seem to update the links.

Example output below:
http://www.happyrider.com/=>0<br />http://www.guzzirent.it/=>0<br />http://www.velocityleathers.com/=>200<br />http://www.velodrom.com/=>200<br />http://www.americanroadrider.com/=>302<br />http://www.2wheeltouring.net/=>200<br />http://www.barneysleather.com/=>200<br />http://www.bikerleather.com/=>200<br />http://www.bikerwares.com/=>200<br />http://www.cyclec.cc/=>200<br />http://www.damgloves.com/=>200<br />http://www.dragginjeans.com.au/=>200<br />http://www.earplugco.com/=>200<br />http://www.giannifalco.com/=>302<br />http://www.guard-dogs.com/=>200<br />http://www.icicles.com/=>200<br />http://www.ironeaglechoppers.com/=>200<br />http://www.kooltie.com/=>200<br />http://www.ldcomfort.com/=>200<br />http://www.localaccess.com/jrcglove/=>200<br />http://www.longdistancebiker.com/=>200<br />http://www.motocoolstuff.com/=>200<br />http://www.motonation.com/=>200<br />http://www.motorcycleapparel.net/=>200<br />http://www.olympiagloves.com/=>200

[safatweb]

server error 500 for http://www.aljarra.com/
no error listed fot http://alsharhanind.com/

and many more

[Vincent Wright]

server error 500 for http://www.aljarra.com/
no error listed fot http://alsharhanind.com/


What is that?

[Bryan Ex]

Vincent... I would suggest adding output to screen for both crons if run manually from a browser window. It may save a whole lot of hassles for support in the future determining if someone has a cron issue or server config issue should it not work. It would also serve as a quick test that it's been set up correctly when first installed.

[Bryan Ex]

Quick question... if I set the cron interval to 0 days will it check all links on every execution of the script? (I'm just looking to speed up the process while testing that's all.)

[djbaxter]

Interesting question. I must admit it never occurred to me to run cron.php from the browser - this could be a (quick?) manual check.

[safatweb]

What is that?


2 from the list, sites slow opening

so cron taking them as error, some server error, some without errors.

[Vincent Wright]

to BryanEx


Vincent... I would suggest adding output to screen for both crons if run manually from a browser window. It may save a whole lot of hassles for support in the future determining if someone has a cron issue or server config issue should it not work. It would also serve as a quick test that it's been set up correctly when first installed


Good idea. I will add it to the crons.

[djbaxter]

Vincent:

Want to PM me the details for the beta crons?

[crash3903]

and me pls

Thanks

Mark

[dousma]

Vincent as soon as you have the new cron ready to update pagerank please mail me as well because that part isn't working on my site and broken links does work.

[Vincent Wright]

To djbaxter and crash3903

Gusy, I'm posting from home right now. Unfortunately, I don't have the package here. Once I get to work (tomorrow) I will send you the package.

[Vincent Wright]

to dousma

Ok, dousma, I will send you the new Page Rank update cron once it's ready.

[djbaxter]

Thanks, Vincent. :)

[lsb]

Back from vacation, I see a very active cron-thread here, great!
Vincent, I would also love to beta-test your work.
I send you a PM with my address.
Greetings, Lars

[sdawkins]

There is a page in my directory that keeps showing broken. When I check it with the cron it says check it manually. When I check it manually it works. How do I get it out of broken?

[djbaxter]

Check the displayed header information in the Admin broken links panel. What does it say?

It may be set to "broken" with a redirect or even time-out, or some sites will return "forbidden" or "not found" to automated requests. If that's the issue, just manually set the header to "200 found".

[sdawkins]

Check the displayed header information in the Admin broken links panel. What does it say?

It may be set to "broken" with a redirect or even time-out, or some sites will return "forbidden" or "not found" to automated requests. If that's the issue, just manually set the header to "200 found".

It doesn't show any error -- Link header is unknown. Please check it manually.

[Vincent Wright]

to djbaxter and lsb

I have sent the package to you.

to crash3903

Where do I send it to? I need your email. Please PM it to me.

[redeye]

When checking the db in phpmyadmin there was an error message saying there is no index. Is this a problem?

[Vincent Wright]

No index for which table?

[redeye]

No index for which table?

dir_crons - No Index defined

[Vincent Wright]

Indices are used to speed up queries. But dir_crons is a really small table. So I don't think adding an index will change anything.

It's a good practice though to have a primary index for every table. You can define a primary index on `name` field.

[safatweb]

::VINCENT:: it was not the problem from broken.php, it was the mysql server
the queries were getting locked for some reason

[Vincent Wright]

::VINCENT:: it was not the problem from broken.php, it was the mysql server
the queries were getting locked for some reason

This is a good news for me :friends:

[sdawkins]

Vincent, how can I get the problem solved in the post i made above these few posts? Any suggestions?

[redeye]

Vincent
My old cron is working but I'm getting nothing from the new one ... not even error message emails?

[lasor]

Hi Vincent

Could you possibly send me the cron files you have as I do not have pagerank working on my site. Please also include the readme file as I have not got a clue what I am doing??

the_blues@tiscali.co.uk

Thanks

[Vincent Wright]

to sdawkins

Vincent, how can I get the problem solved in the post i made above these few posts? Any suggestions?

Greetings sdawkins,

you can manually change link status from broken to valid. Log into your Admin Panel, go to Broken Links page, locate the link you want set as valid. Click Edit Link icon (the one at the bottom right corner of link box that looks like a sheet of paper with a pencil over it). At the bottom you will see URL Header field. Set its value to "URL located, content follows (200)" and save changes.

Now this link will be valid.

[Vincent Wright]

to redeye

Vincent
My old cron is working but I'm getting nothing from the new one ... not even error message emails?

What did you expect to get from the new cron?

[Vincent Wright]

to lasor

Hi Vincent

Could you possibly send me the cron files you have as I do not have pagerank working on my site. Please also include the readme file as I have not got a clue what I am doing??

the_blues@tiscali.co.uk

Thanks

Greetings lasor,

unfortunately this thread is about broken/reciprocal crons. It's not for PR update cron. I didn't yet implement the new PR update cron so there is little I can help you with here.

[Vincent Wright]

This thread has reached 666 views :scared:

[sdawkins]

Thanks Vincent -- learned something new today!

[Vincent Wright]

I hope that bit of knowledge helped you in resolving the issue.

[redeye]

to redeye



What did you expect to get from the new cron?

Just an email when it ran. Either a list of the links or an error message.
I have the old and the new crons set to run every 4 hours. I have always had an email from the old one, but get nothing from the test one.

Both of the cron syntax are identical apart from the last part of the path

Old: /admin/cron.php
New: /cron/broken.php

Where are the places I should look first to see what I've done wrong?

[Vincent Wright]

Just an email when it ran. Either a list of the links or an error message.
I have the old and the new crons set to run every 4 hours. I have always had an email from the old one, but get nothing from the test one.

Both of the cron syntax are identical apart from the last part of the path

Old: /admin/cron.php
New: /cron/broken.php

Where are the places I should look first to see what I've done wrong?

I see what you mean. The new cron is rewritten from scratch. I didn't add email reporting. Well, seems that I should have done that.

I will add this feature and will resend you the updated files (as well as everyone else in my 'beta-cron-testers list').

[Vincent Wright]

IMPORTANT! Please read everyone testing the new cron suite.

Guys and Gals,

once again I would like to explain the frequency of link checking.


First of all, the current implementation DOES NOT check ALL the links at once. It means once cron is executed it does not check all the links in one bunch.

Instead every execution of the cron checks only a small chunk of links.

I think I had better explain this on an example.

Imagine you have 250 links in your directory. Imagine also that you have the following settings:

1. Cron is set up in CPanel to execute every once in 30 minutes.
2. Cron is set up in your Admin Panel to check 100 links in one run and check interval is set to 3 days.

What does all that mean? Let me explain.

The first time the cron is executed it fetches the first 100 links from the database and checks them (either for broken or for reciprocal; hereafter I refer to a "cron" as a mechanism for checking links, not actual cron).

Now the cron "sleeps" for 30 minutes (technically it doesn't sleep; instead it is executed by the system in 30 minutes). This time it fetches the next 100 links and checks them as well.

Once again, it sleeps for 30 minutes till the next run. After 30 minutes elapse the cron is being executed again and this time it fetches the remainging 50 links and checks them.

Now the cron has checked all the links in the database and has nothing to do except run idle within the next 3 days (remember the check interval?).

Once 3 days pass the whole process starts all over.

Why this was done

I think that for small directories (hundreds of links) it's not a problem to check all the links in one run. But once your directory grows to several thousand links this is going to be a problem. Connecting to a host takes some time to complete and connecting to thousands and thousands of hosts will take TOO MUCH TIME to complete. Splitting the whole process in small chunks seems reasonable to me.

But I still need your opinion. Do you think this is appropriate or not?

Why I had to post it

First of all this is just a reminder on how things work in the new crons.

Second, people remind me of some features that would be useful and I have to explain how these features will work in the new implementation.

Actually, there is one such feature that needs more explanation.

Previously in this thread redeye asked about email reports. In the current implementation if I add email reports a report will be sent every time cron checks at least one link. In the scenario above you will receive an email every 30 minutes (this will result in 3 emails in the example above) until all the links are checked. In 3 days you will receive another 3 emails and so on and so on. My question is: Is it acceptable to you? If yes, then no prob, I will do it. If no, what shall I do then?

My request to everyone: please share your ideas!

[snerd]

The checking links in "chunks" seems reasonable to me. I'm over 2400 links in one directory, and will be approachung that in the others soon I hope. I've had the new cron running every three days checking 100 links every 30 minutes and it's working fine that way.

I don't really need an e-mail report because I can see that the cron's are running and doing their job when there are broken links showing up in Admin.

But these are just my thoughts. I'll wait to see what others think.

[Vincent Wright]

The checking links in "chunks" seems reasonable to me. I'm over 2400 links in one directory, and will be approachung that in the others soon I hope. I've had the new cron running every three days checking 100 links every 30 minutes and it's working fine that way.

That's why I implemented it that way.


I don't really need an e-mail report because I can see that the cron's are running and doing their job when there are broken links showing up in Admin.


This can be optional setting in Admin Panel.


But these are just my thoughts. I'll wait to see what others think.

Thanks for sharing them with me.

[redeye]

Actually, there is one such feature that needs more explanation.

Previously in this thread redeye asked about email reports. In the current implementation if I add email reports a report will be sent every time cron checks at least one link. In the scenario above you will receive an email every 30 minutes (this will result in 3 emails in the example above) until all the links are checked. In 3 days you will receive another 3 emails and so on and so on. My question is: Is it acceptable to you? If yes, then no prob, I will do it. If no, what shall I do then?


In my cpanel there is an email box which I thought if filled would send an email irrespective of the cron script?

[Vincent Wright]

This is where cron output is sent in case you fill in email address. But since new crons DO NOT output anything (except for unexpected errors of course) there is no reason to send blank emails. That's why you didn't receive emails I believe.

[redeye]

I see, my mis-understanding, I thought the server was responsible for sending out the email not the cron.

[safatweb]

can i ask

error 24 & error 28 , is it generated from cron. as i got this error

but dont know from where in the script

[Vincent Wright]

can i ask

error 24 & error 28 , is it generated from cron. as i got this error

but dont know from where in the script

Hmm, I never met these errors while testing the crons.

[djbaxter]

Vincent, perhaps you could add the option of sending a single email when links checking completes? I've no idea how simple or difficult that would be to implement - I've been assuming that if I don't get an email it means everything was fine but I guess for all I know it could mean that the cron job didn't run at all...

[redeye]

Indirectly related to the broken links cron.

I have over 160 broken links and could not understand why. I've manually test lots of them and they are valid links but show as "Link header unkown".
I've just been trying to test a few this evening and noticed that a lot of them have a trailing / at the end.
ie. www.domain.com/ (http://www.domain.com/)

Remove the slash and the link is accepted. So now I'm going through removing the / .....and I thought it was a problem with the cron

[Vincent Wright]

Hmm, if it's not working with trailing slashes then it's a bug. I will test it today.

[Vincent Wright]

to redeye

Strange, I have just added a new link in my test directory with a trailing slash. Then I manually executed broken.php and it reported the link as NOT broken.

[redeye]

You're right it isn't a bug with the URL - it's the email address.

I imported a list of links using LW and it seems to have appended a / onto the email. If I remove the / from the email and leave the / on the URL it clears the broken link.

[Vincent Wright]

Ok, that clarifies the matter then.

[redeye]

Didn't realise the script checked the email as valid when it checked the link. As you can validate a broken link without an email I never thought of checking the email was correct.

[Vincent Wright]

Ah, no. The cron DOES NOT check emails.

[taffmartin]

Hi Vincent,

I'll test out the cron package.

Taff

cron AT taffs-article-directory.com

[Mark Brookes]

Hi Vincent

I'm making progress and am ready to try & "validate" all my imported links. I think this means cron jobs :)

Would you recommend I start with the test cron's
or should I start by getting the 'official' crons working.

regards
Mark

[Vincent Wright]

I think you can give test crons a try. It has logging facility so if anything goes wrong you can send me the log files.

[Mark Brookes]

fine, can you point me in the right direction to get the latest test version (& docs(?):D )

regards

[Vincent Wright]

Just give me your email and I will send the package.

[Mark Brookes]

Thanks, you should be receiving my PM any time .... :)

[Mark Brookes]

Hello Vincent

something seems to have gone wrong with m attempts to contact (PM/email) you.

can we try agin at a time suitable to you?

regards
Mark

[safatweb]

Cron is working fine, but some sites which cron says broken, when i tried manually it not broken???

[Calvin Herl]

can I get a copy of the new cron job please info@freebeehut.com

[Vincent Wright]

to Calvin Herl

Have just sent you the package.

[Mark Brookes]

Vincent :yahoo:

BTW:yahoo:

and did I mention ...:yahoo:


I have tested broken.php via my browser (proves installation & configuration I think - without extra complexity of cron jobs)

I have checked my broken.txt log file & see it checking links, till It had checked all - I ran broken.php lots of times -




May I suggest some browser output to indicate that the php is running, and to say when it is finished. The browser told me error messages & page not found messages, even though the broken.txt proved that it was working ok..


REgards
Mark


PS - I am a bit surporsed to only have 31 broken links according to Admin-panel. Perhaps I should study broken.ttx some more

[Mark Brookes]

Hi Vincent .


This is feedback :)

curiously Admin-panel broken links reports 31 broken links

but broken.txt reports 42 items which are NOT reply: 200.
This stricks me as odd, but I am not sure if it is worth worrying about.

ID: 314 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 14 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 143 REPLY: Connection error: 111, Connection refused
ID: 144 REPLY: 301
ID: 149 REPLY: 302
ID: 150 REPLY: 302
ID: 151 REPLY: 302
ID: 152 REPLY: 302
ID: 153 REPLY: 302
ID: 154 REPLY: 302
ID: 173 REPLY: 404
ID: 180 REPLY: 301
ID: 188 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 20 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 132 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 22 REPLY: 404
ID: 232 REPLY: 302
ID: 234 REPLY: 302
ID: 246 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 274 REPLY: 302
ID: 279 REPLY: 302
ID: 308 REPLY: 302
ID: 31 REPLY: 302
ID: 312 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 326 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 201 REPLY: 404
ID: 316 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 320 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 321 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 322 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 324 REPLY: 302
ID: 325 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 328 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 327 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 33 REPLY: 302
ID: 315 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 34 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 39 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 46 REPLY: Connection error: 0, Success
ID: 5 REPLY:
ID: 6 REPLY: 301
ID: 9 REPLY: 302


Another element to the puzzle
The broken links report in Admin-Panel says there are only 31 links, but it includes several that are not in the list above - from broken.txt.

I have a list of IDs which Admin panel thinks are broken, but which cron thinks are not:-
115
102
82
53
65
329

[naplesdave]

Hi Vincent,

Any idea when the Page Rank will be done? Am very interested in that.

Also, is there a reason that this was written into the latest update if it doesn't work?

Thanks.
Dave

[Vincent Wright]

to Mark Brookes

Mark, could you please email me the log file. I need to inspect it closely and to see which URLs are reported broken, etc.

Thanks.

[Vincent Wright]

to naplesdave

Dave, PageRank does work on some server, but not on the others.

This has been discussed on Google Community (http://www.googlecommunity.com/about5786-0-asc-15.html)

[dousma]

Vincent I understood that pagerank problem would be solved too so it will be working on all servers as discussed before? Now I understand that eSyndicat would not solve this problem?

[dousma]

On my server allow_url_fopen is on but still not working, my ISP asked to try it with the Perl option but how to do that?

[naplesdave]

to naplesdave

Dave, PageRank does work on some server, but not on the others.



Yeah, but I didn't find anything about setting it up correctly. I have eSyndicat installed on over 25 different web hosting companies and none of them work - so, I'm pretty sure it's operator error.

Once we get into the control panel and click to turn it on - yes, it shows up (as zero throughout) on the pages, but it never is updated. Do I have to point a cron at the pagerank.php file, or can someone walk me through how to do this?

Thanks a bunch!!

[Vincent Wright]

Please take a look here:
http://www.esyndicat.com/forum/about6721.html

[martinm]

When will this be out of beta and a usable version is available?

Cheers

M.

[Vincent Wright]

I still have to fix some things in recip/broken check, plus I have to debug PR update cron, plus, probably, write more comprehensive documentation files.

I can guarantee the new version will be with these crons. And the new version is planned on October.

Hope I answered your question.

[billybh]

Darn, stuck in installation: Log into your CPanel and go to Cron Jobs. My site is hosted on GoDaddy, and I don't see no Cron Jobs. Can anyone confirm this?

[WTM]

I am not 100% sure but I think GoDaddy does not support cron jobs

[netvaz]

Hi Vincent: Can you send me the cron & page rank info? Please send to:
info[at]para-links.com

Thanks

[Vincent Wright]

Have just sent the package to you.

[netvaz]

Vincent: Thanks for sending the cron package. I uploaded the files to the server as instructed, setup permissions as instructed, and set up the cron commands using my server paths. Also.. MySql updated successfully, and I enabled everything in esyndicat cron admin panel, except logs. Running the broken.php test returns:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: getkeyvalue() in /home/paralink/public_html/directory/cron/broken.php on line 21

Also: WWW::Goggle::PageRank Perl module is installed. To the best of my knowledge, nothing is working. Can you help please? Thanks,

[Vincent Wright]

It means that you DID NOT add the function getKeyValue() to the classes/DirDb.php as described in the guide.

[Vincent Wright]

I checked your set up.

Sorry, you seem to have added the function getKeyValue(). BUT, you did it in the wrong place. I fixed this problem.

When I tried to run the PR update cron it reported that it is disabled in Admin Panel. I logged in an enabled the PageRank update cron there.

I ran it once again -- this time it worked.

To be on the safe side I checked your cron set up -- it's ok.

[maurerdom]

Please send it me also. I can test that.

info at hockeycenter.ch

Thanks

[netvaz]

Vincent: Just a note to say thank you. Everything seems to be working fine now. :applause:

[Vincent Wright]

Please send it me also. I can test that.

info at hockeycenter.ch

Thanks

Have just sent the package to you.

[Vincent Wright]

Vincent: Just a note to say thank you. Everything seems to be working fine now. :applause:

You are welcome.

[ape101]

Hi, do i need this for my directory and if so how do I go about adding it, please.

Do you send the script or add it for us vincent?

Please advise

[Vincent Wright]

Give me your email and I will sent the package to you.

It has installation instructions so you should be able to install it.

[Vinicius]

Hello Vincent,

Please add me to the testers list.
Just sent a pm with my email.
regards,

Vinicius

[Vincent Wright]

I have sent the package to you too.

[dousma]

Vincent,
I have a lot of affliate links and of course there is no reciprocal link and these fields are empty. Of course I have normal links too and they have a reciprocal link. Is it possible for esyndicat and the the new cronjob to check only the reciprocal links of the links where these fields are filled in? So the affiliate links where the field reciprocal is empty or only have http:// filled in and nothing else should be left alone.

[Vincent Wright]

This is exactly how recip checking works: if the recip link is http:// it is considered INVALID and the cron does not bother checking it.

[dousma]

Then how come I see in the admin menu:
non reciprocal: 368
This way I never find out which reciprocal link are realy broken!

[Vincent Wright]

What did you expect to see?

[dousma]

I like to see only the number of the links who really has filled in a reciprocal link and of course a number of not working reciprocal links.
Suppose I have 10 links in the database, 3 of them have a reciprocal link and 1 of the reciprocal links does not link to my website I like to see:
Reciprocal link: 3
Broken reciprocal links: 1

This way I can take action to the one who is not linking to my site or I can delete that link.

[Vincent Wright]

Ok, I see now.


Well, we will probably include this in the next version.

[Tulip]

send me @ support at crystalwebhost.com

[siemanet]

please also send me the package to mark[at]siemanet.com

[Vincent Wright]

Have just sent it to you.

[Erik]

Hi Vincent,

Please send to smackbomb{at}gmail{dot}com.

[Erik]

Hi Vincent,

Please send to smackbomb{at}gmail{dot}com.

Are they not being sent out anymore, or did my request fall between the cracks?

[Vincent Wright]

to Erik

Sorry for the delay.

I have just sent the package to you.

[Erik]

This isn't making sense.

From the manual:

Please open classes/DirDb.php file and add the following function at the bottom of the file:
function &getKeyValue($query)
{
$out = array ();
$res =& $this->query($query);
while ($row =& mysql_fetch_row($res))
{
$out[$row[0]] = $row[1];
}
return $out;
}
Please make sure that there is no whitespace after the closing ?> in this file.

I opened up DirDb.php - is that code supposed to go at the VERY end of the file? Because there is no closing ?> at the end of the file (or anywhere else for that matter).

I pasted that to the end of the file and went to the testing phase, and this is what I get when I try to check the reciprocal cron (which is the only one I'm using at this point):

"Fatal error: Call to undefined function: getkeyvalue() in /home/totalspo/public_html/cron/reciprocal.php on line 20"

I added the ?> at the very end of DirDb.php thinking that might be the problem - no difference.

What might I be doing wrong?

[Vincent Wright]

Ah, sorry.

This is my fault. I didn't document it properly.

Actually, you have to insert the code inside the class definition, not outside. In other words, you have to put it before the closing } at the bottom of the file so that it is a method of the class, not a separate function.

[Erik]

Ah, sorry.

This is my fault. I didn't document it properly.

Actually, you have to insert the code inside the class definition, not outside. In other words, you have to put it before the closing } at the bottom of the file so that it is a method of the class, not a separate function.

OK, that worked. Thanks.

I'm checking the log now (I am only doing reciprocal checks right now) and have a few questions. It seems to be checking EVERY link, not just the ones with a reciprocal URL listed. Is this correct? It seems like overkill and possible causing a lot of extra server load if it is checking links that don't even have a reciprocal link listed.

Also, these links that do not have a reciprocal link listed - the reply is "Reciprocal URL is not well formed". What does this mean? There is no reciprocal link.

I did come across one URL that was a reciprocal link and had a URL listed (I have almost 4000 links in my directory but only a small number of reciprocals). Here's what it said:


ID: 229
URL: http://www.detroitsportsvibe.com/index.php/board,9.0.html
R-URL: http://www.detroitsportsvibe.com/index.php
REPLY: 200
RECIP: not valid
TIME: 0.0611 seconds to check the link.

I run the site in question, so I can verify that the reciprocal URL does contain a valid link. Why would it come back as not valid?

[Vincent Wright]

I'm checking the log now (I am only doing reciprocal checks right now) and have a few questions. It seems to be checking EVERY link, not just the ones with a reciprocal URL listed. Is this correct? It seems like overkill and possible causing a lot of extra server load if it is checking links that don't even have a reciprocal link listed.

Also, these links that do not have a reciprocal link listed - the reply is "Reciprocal URL is not well formed". What does this mean? There is no reciprocal link.


The two quesitons are related.

The cron fetches all the links from the database. Then for each link it checks if the recip url is well-formed. Well formed url means a url that has http:// part, sub-domain part, and top-level domain part, like "http://www.google.com". Empty URLs and URLs like "http://" are considered non well formed URLs, and are thus not checked.


I did come across one URL that was a reciprocal link and had a URL listed (I have almost 4000 links in my directory but only a small number of reciprocals). Here's what it said:
...


What link should your partners put on their sites as the back link?

[Erik]

What link should your partners put on their sites as the back link?

www.totalsportslinks.com

Some go to specific "directories", i.e. www.totalsportslinks.com/nfl/detroit-lions

[medyaoyun]

vincent
can you send me the package to info (at) freightlist (dot) com

thanks

[brr300]

I have a directory with 7500+ links and the original cron that comes with the script can not handle it correctly. Please send me the script and I will evaluate it.

[Elliot Smith]

Can you send me a copy of the package please?

elliot.smith {[@]} tradingup dot net

[anno73]

Please send me a copy too

[slotvent]

ill have a copy also thanks

webmaster (at) communitycabin (dot) com

[IgorD]

vincent
can you send me the package to meewolf (at) yandex (dot) ru

thanks

[Vincent Wright]

Greetings all,

sorry for the long long long delay.

This week I will release the Cron Job package for Pro 1.2 (yes, for Pro 1.2 since Pro 2.0 already has all the features I have been testing so far).

Also, I will write detailed installation instructions. Then, I will put it all into Downloads area where you will be able to obtain it.

Finally, I will write a comprehensive Knowledgebase article on what cron jobs are, why they are used in eSyndiCat and how to set up cron jobs in CPanel.

[Vincent Wright]

Greetings all,

please read this article:
http://www.esyndicat.com/support/desk/knowledgebase/view/3.html