Alerts not working in every case - what is the process?

CTXMedia

Well-known member
I'm getting a few complaints that alerts aren't working consistently.

How are alerts managed within XF - are they based on a cron job that runs every few minutes? are they intended to be instant? do multiple alerts for the same thread get merged (or reduced to a single alert)?

Just so I can understand the process and then I can begin to look at what, if anything, may be the problem.

Thanks,
Shaun :D
 
Okay, one of the things we've discovered is that you don't appear to get an alert for threads that you participated in *before* the migration - should XF be *aware* of participation prior to migration, or do the alerts only work on threads you've posted in *after* the migration?

Also I was navigating a multi-page thread today when someone replied and I didn't get an alert - is that because I was already viewing the thread?

I expect that if the alerts are only activated post migration, then it will take a few weeks to build up the history for them to work consistantly, but if not then we may need to look at it a bit further.

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
Okay, well they definitely aren't working as expected; I've seen there have been replies to threads I'm watching (as well as participating in) that I haven't received an alert for, and others have complained of the same.

What's the best way of going about investigating why the alerts aren't triggering?

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
There's no reason an alert wouldn't be triggered, unless it's not meeting the conditions to trigger again (eg, the thread hasn't been read since the last alert). The same conditions are used for watch thread emails.
 
There's no reason an alert wouldn't be triggered, unless it's not meeting the conditions to trigger again (eg, the thread hasn't been read since the last alert). The same conditions are used for watch thread emails.

Hmmm ... well that's what is happening. I'll login, see a thread in What's New that I'm currently watching (and have been participating in) and when I check alerts I can't see one for that thread - where I expect to be alerted to new replies to the thread.

However it is not happening every time. I get some alerts, just not all.

I'll enable email alerts to see if I get a mismatch between emails and the alerts ballon/list.

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
Okay, well here's an example of it not working here on the XF community forums: I've posted in (and am marked as watching) this thread - http://xenforo.com/community/threads/suggestion-post-edit-history.2883/page-8

There was a new post today and I didn't get an alert about it (check my alerts list).

So - why didn't I get an alert? Surely it should alert me about new replies to all watched threads?

Or am I missing something obvious?

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
So you get one alert - for the very next reply after you've read the thread - and then you don't get any more, regardless of how many more people reply to it, until you read it again?

That's not my understanding or experience of how they work.
 
I've had multiple alerts for the same thread without going back to read it.

Scratch that - I'm mistaken - I've been working on a false assumption that alerts actually "alert" you every time someone replies to a watched thread ... and in that context they appeared to be broken.

Now you've explained the "one alert to tell you about a new reply, but no more until you read the thread" process - it makes more sense (but I still had to test it on my own site for the penny to drop).

I'm hard work sometimes aren't I - erm, you don't have to answer that BTW!!! :p
 
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