Exec() enabled but diagnostic says it isn't + no media uploaded via Symbiostock [resolved]

[MrsCassandraParticipant]

I recently installed Symbiostock, all to specs, including WooCommerce. Checking the diagnostic, it looked like exec() was disabled but in reality it is enabled as I checked the phpinfo() and also asked the hosting’s support. Also, I tried to use the function to upload new media via browser offered by Symbiostock which resulted in a new product created, the new image actually being stored in …/ss_media/new but no image actually is actually showed in the product page and no thumbnail is created either. If I check for this image in WordPress standardd Media section the image isn’t there.

Any thoughts?

[RobinKeymaster]

Hi there – if the image is stored and the product is created but no thumbnail exists then it is plausible that the processor is not processing the images correctly. This would be related to the hosting environment somehow having issues – likely memory, but could be something else. Please run the diagnostic to see if the test JPEG gets created – if so the processor should work fine, but not definitely. My guess is it is a memory issue in your hosting environment. Try disabling the cron job and running the processor manually after uploading an image. If it crashes it is likely a memory issue.

[MrsCassandraParticipant]

Hi there, thank you for your reply.

I had ran the diagnostic wizard and all works fine except the capability to write metadata on images, despite the fact that exec() is factually enabled.

In terms of general diagnostic, I see Symbiostock recommends a Memory Limit of ideally over 200 and the current setting shows 256. Do you perhaps refer to another type of memory issue? Or do you think 256 is too little?

[RobinKeymaster]

Try uploading a large image and running the processor manually after disabling the cron job to see if it processes correctly. If it does not show up properly in WordPress you will see the error there.

As for memory, there are two different “memory” limits – it is not exactly clear at times, but the PHP memory limit is slightly different than the memory limit applied outside of PHP to the whole hosting environment. For example, to process vectors Symbiostock Hosting can provide a 10GB burst memory limit at times as that is how much memory is required to process vectors. So the PHP memory limit shown in the diagnostic is not actually as important as the overall memory limit applied to your hosting account. This is something you will have to ask your host.

[MrsCassandraParticipant]

Thank you Robin! I completely forgot about the cron job and it wasn’t set up. I ran it manually with new images, including larger ones, and all worked correctly with thumbnail and all.

I may have an issue with running the cron job once a minute. Would once every 30 minutes work?

Edit: also, metadata were properly saved on the original file! 🙂

[RobinKeymaster]

Hi there – you can run it once every thirty minutes but you are going to experience significant performance slow downs in the sense that prices and products will be updated and added slowly. Additionally if anyone makes a purchase they will have to wait till it runs and this may take some time. But other than that it should be okay.

[MrsCassandraParticipant]

Hi Robin, thank you for taking the time to reply.

What do you mean by “if anyone makes a purchase they will have to wait till it runs”? What would they be waiting for? How is the cron job involved in the purchase procedure?

[RobinKeymaster]

Once an image is purchased the resized image is created by the cron job for the customer. Without this the customer will not receive an email for the download.

[MrsCassandraParticipant]

Let’s see if I get it right: if a customer makes a purchase, he will have to wait up to 30 minutes before it gets the email. Is this correct?

[RobinKeymaster]

Yes, if you have the processor running every 30 minutes. It may in fact take longer if the processor has other tasks to complete first.

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