New threads stopped creating automatically

[orthopug]

Suddenly, the plugin doesn't create new threads on the forum automatically anymore, whether I schedule a post or post immediately. I'm using the latest version. My Wordpress article goes live with "Auto-create thread" selected but there is nothing posted on the forum.

After this happens, I go to edit the Wordpress article after it's published and manually select "Create a new thread". I click the create button with the default setting (Post to forum dropdown is selected to "Post to default forum"). When I click create, I get an error message: "The requested page could not be found." Then I select the actual subforum name in the dropdown, click create, and it finally creates. I don't remember in the past having to select the actual subforum in the dropdown to get a new thread to be created. I wonder if this is the root of the problem.

Everything else is working fine. The permissions look ago and once a thread is created, the syncing works.

 

[Alex]

Hi @orthopug, thank you for the report.

So far I am only seeing this happen if the post is published without any draft saved previously, but I am able to have the auto-thread create option work for me.

Try saving your XFtoWP settings, as it is possible the "Page cannot be found" message is being triggered because the plugin doesn't have the "Default forum" setting saved for some reason.

 

[orthopug]

I think I fixed it. Here's what I did:

-I went to Site Setup and added a new forum ID. Then I Synced and set the new forum as the default
-I created a post, saved as draft, then published it with the setting on Auto-create Thread. It successfully posted the thread on the forum.
-I changed back the default forum to the original, made a new post, scheduled it, and it successfully created the thread.

Hopefully it will be okay in the future!

 

[Alex]

@orthopug great! I am going to mark this as not a bug as I think it's related to the "default forum" setting needing to be saved at first.

If this issue comes back again please let me know! Apologies for any inconvenience about your last post.

 

[Igor]

I am also experiencing this issue today and yesterday, but I cannot rely on moving it to a draft. Can we have an alternative solution for this issue?

Just to be clear - some posts do have threads, others don't, so it is a bug.

 

[Alex]

I am also experiencing this issue today and yesterday, but I cannot rely on moving it to a draft. Can we have an alternative solution for this issue?

Until a post has its first save, either manually or autosave, it is not considered to be anything. Once that first save happens, it moves to a draft which is the minimum state XFtoWP currently requires for an auto creation to happen.

Can you reproduce the steps you are taking to unsuccessfully create a thread? I am removing the resolved status on this thread to work this out with you.

 

[Andro]

As per my experience, the thread schedule functionality of XFtoWP is not reliable at all. At our site, it sometimes creates threads much before the post publish (while the wp post is still on draft) or doesn't create anything at all. This is why I requested to bring back the schedule thread button that accurately worked and 10x more reliable compared to current hit or miss version.

Previous discussions on this:

Implemented - Schedule threads and replies on post publish

Till XFtoWP 1.3, we had an option to schedule threads on post publish. But since XFtoWP 1.4 introduces auto thread creation on post publish along with an option to disable auto-publish on a per-post basis, the previously added "schedule thread" option has been removed. This can cause a few...

kolakube.com

 

[Igor]

Yeah, I can confirm that it does not work reliably at all.

I will have to write another WP CLI extension to deal with this issue 🤷‍♂️

 

[Igor]

There is another problem - posts that are scheduled are published to XenForo before they are actually published.

 

[Alex]

This is why I requested to bring back the schedule thread button that accurately worked and 10x more reliable compared to current hit or miss version.

Yeah, I can confirm that it does not work reliably at all.

Hmm, I didn't know there was an ongoing issue from that thread.

The process should be as simple as:
1) WP admin > Posts > Add new
2) Type title, or post content
3) Select "Create thread" from XF meta box
4) Save as draft
5) Publish or Schedule post

Even easier when WP admin > XF > Thread connect > Create thread > Auto create thread on post publish is enabled.

1) WP admin > Posts > Add new
2) Type title, or post content
3) Save as draft
4) Press Publish

I think you understand how all of that works already, but following those steps I've had the create/reply/connect actions work as-intended on post publish from my own use of the plugin and lots of testing.

I don't want to just blame caching or some other plugin as the cause (always worth looking into tho ) but I haven't been able to "break" this process to see the problem yet.

At our site, it sometimes creates threads much before the post publish (while the wp post is still on draft) or doesn't create anything at all.

There is another problem - posts that are scheduled are published to XenForo before they are actually published.

Same thing, nothing in the code shows me the process would run any earlier than Publish, which is where this action is confined to.

If you have any steps I can follow to get the issue, that will definitely help me understand better.

I will have to write another WP CLI extension to deal with this issue 🤷‍♂️

Maybe an XFtoWP WP CLI plugin should be in the works? It seems like the next logical step for powerful actions like these.