HappenBoard → Settings → Health shows whether HappenBoard’s background work runs on time, and gives you buttons to fix the usual problems. HappenBoard also adds its own tests to the WordPress Tools → Site Health screen.
Like the rest of Settings, this screen is for administrators (see roles and permissions).
Check that reminders go out on time
HappenBoard sends reminder emails and other timed work through WordPress scheduled tasks. By default, WordPress runs these tasks only when someone visits your site. On a quiet site, a reminder due at 3 a.m. goes out when the next visitor arrives.
The Scheduled tasks card shows a green message when tasks run on time, and a warning when some are late. Under it:
- Mode: whether WordPress runs tasks on visits, or whether that is switched off and a server task is expected to run them.
- Overdue: how many scheduled tasks of the whole site are more than five minutes late.
- Action Scheduler: whether this task library is installed (some plugins, such as WooCommerce, bring it). When it is, booking reminders are queued there.
Three late tasks or more raise a warning. If the visit-based schedule is switched off and even one task is late, the card turns red: nothing is running them.
Fix late reminders
The reliable fix is a server task (a “cron job”) that runs WordPress’s scheduled tasks every minute:
- Ask your host, or use the cron section of your hosting panel, to run
wp cron event run --due-nowevery minute from your site’s folder. This needs WP-CLI on the server. - Once it runs, add
define( 'DISABLE_WP_CRON', true );to yourwp-config.phpfile, so visits no longer trigger the tasks.
The card shows both lines when it finds a problem, with your site’s folder already filled in. Your confirmation and reminder emails then go out on time. See using WP-CLI for more about the command line.
Check versions and tables
The System card shows your HappenBoard, WordPress and PHP versions, then each HappenBoard database table with its version.
A tick means the table is up to date. A version followed by “(run migrations)” means the table needs updating: use Run migrations below. A table that is missing, for example after a site move, shows version 0.
The maintenance buttons
| Button | What it does | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Run migrations | Creates or updates HappenBoard’s database tables, and says how many changed. If a table cannot be created, the message gives the database’s reason. Safe to run at any time. | The System card or Site Health flags a table, or an update did not finish. |
| Clear caches | Deletes the temporary copies HappenBoard keeps in your database (the iCal feed, weather forecasts) and its anti-spam counters. They rebuild when needed. | A form refuses entries because a counter is stuck, or the iCal feed or a forecast looks out of date. |
| Re-arm reminders | Schedules again the reminders of upcoming bookings (confirmed or awaiting payment, up to 2,000) and of RSVPs to dates ahead (up to 5,000). | After a period when scheduled tasks did not run, or after importing bookings. |
| Purge orphan bookings | Permanently deletes the bookings whose booking type was deleted. | To clean up after deleting a booking type for good. |
Each button reports what it did in a short message at the bottom of the screen.
Clear caches only reaches copies stored in your database. If your site uses a persistent object cache (such as Redis or Memcached), clear that cache from your host’s panel or your caching plugin instead.
Purge orphan bookings runs as soon as you click it, with no confirmation, and the deleted bookings cannot be recovered.
The WordPress Site Health tests
Under Tools → Site Health → Status, HappenBoard adds four tests:
- Scheduled tasks: the same check as the card above, with the fix.
- Event addresses: warns when a page, another type of content or a taxonomy uses the address of your events (
/events/by default), with a link to change the event base. See general settings. - Database tables: flags a table that is missing or out of date, with the database’s reason and a link to run the migrations. HappenBoard also retries by itself every few minutes.
- Attendee dates: counts attendees still registered for an upcoming date of a recurring event that was cancelled or removed from the series. Nobody has told them yet, so contact them; the link opens them on the Attendees screen.
Under Info, a HappenBoard section lists the plugin version, the event base, the cron mode, the number of late tasks, Action Scheduler, the pending booking reminders and the table versions. Copy it into your support requests: it answers most of the first questions.
HappenBoard Pro adds one more test, for its own tables.
Next steps
- Automatic emails: the reminders that depend on scheduled tasks.
- Using WP-CLI: run HappenBoard tasks from the command line.
- General settings: change the address of your events.
- Managing attendees: handle the attendees of a cancelled date.