Plugin Author
r-a-y
(@r-a-y)
We’re already aware of this issue. See:
https://github.com/boonebgorges/buddypress-group-email-subscription/issues/28
The problem is you have a ton of group subscribers and currently, GES sends out all emails before the page is rendered.
GES is not the only plugin with this problem; bbPress also has the same architectural problem with its built-in email subscription.
You could try mitigating the problem by using any WP SMTP plugin to send your email.
To temporarily overcome this problem, is there any way to change all subscriptions to Digest?
I have also faced the same bad performance(delay on posting).
Did you find any solution on it?
@aschengold thanks for posting this so we weren’t the only ones thinking we were crazy!
@r-a-y thanks for the note about using SMTP – that got me thinking about queuing emails in general especially good under load as it can’t be efficient to send out hundreds to thousands of emails at once prior to uploading a page even with SMTP, I think the process would still be the same (waiting on completion), but maybe not – either way not a limitation on your plugin, but as you said a limitation of the process itself.
Seems like queuing would be a great add-on to WP since the processes are using wp_mail by default. Maybe not.
In any case, @vinay and I have configured and tested Mail Queues by PBCI (http://wordpress.org/plugins/mail-queues/) and are loving it. First, it solved the WP/BP version conflict and is working with the latest versions of both. Second, it is queuing emails to a table which quickly gets the post registered and the user on their way (thats all the user cares about after all). Third, it’s using SMTP AND throttling functions which also have great benefit – though it certainly will take some load testing to sort out an optimal configuration on the throttles to keep email alerts timely. The only downside I see is that there is no server cron involved, instead it uses wp-cron – but again, it has some throttling available to keep wp-cron from getting out of control.
We had already built in timestamps in our email template which is turning out to be useful to measure (as an enduser) the delay from queue to send. So far, 2 minutes at most.
See what you think – hope this helps. It sure created a panic for us.
I came here to post about this very issue – having just spent the last couple of days trying to track down the cause of the problem!
I already use an smtp plugin – Easy WP SMTP by wpecommerce – but still see the problem.
The thing is, this is a relatively recent problem, so something in a recent WP or BP or bbPress update has caused it.
I do hope there’s a fix coming!
Cheers – it’s nice to know I’m not alone!!!
Hi Peter – the problem happened for us with the combination of WP 3.6.x and BP 1.8.x.
When we rolled back WP to 3.5.x with BP 1.8.x back to normal. When rolled back BP to 1.7.x with WP 3.6.x also back to normal. So it “seems” to be some change combined between WP 3.6.x and BP 1.8.x. I don’t know enough about it to add anything else.
With your SMTP program and any SMTP, the process will still be the same – emails are being sent to group subscribers BEFORE the page/post updates – whether you use SMTP or wp_mail on the same server because the AJAX request is still waiting for emails to finish.
The difference with the mail queue plugin we found is that, yes it’s using SMTP, but what has us back to normal is the email is queued into a table, not sent so its a faster process. Then the queue is cleared (sent) during subsequent page loads in the background.
Until a fix/solution, I would recommend either the mail queue plugin or rolling either WP or BP back one major version.
Hope that helps.
@ddarby14 thank you very much for your help and your suggestion of Mail Queues by PBCI. I can confirm that installing this Plugin effectively solves the performance problem.
@r-a-y thank you for excellent Plugin. Maybe you can add to your documentation / FAQs that Mail Queues by PBCI is recommended for installations with a larger number of users.
Thanky to everybody for engaging in this discussion!
Awesome @aschengold you’re welcome – thanks for starting this AND for taking time to confirm this plugin as one solution, nice to know its not a fluke and repeatable.
Plugin Author
r-a-y
(@r-a-y)
Using the Mail Queues plugin is a good workaround and is actually a good overall solution to sending bulk email.
We actually listed Mail Queues in our wiki awhile back:
https://github.com/boonebgorges/buddypress-group-email-subscription/wiki
Feel free to contribute to it!
This sounds a little odd though:
When we rolled back WP to 3.5.x with BP 1.8.x back to normal. When rolled back BP to 1.7.x with WP 3.6.x also back to normal. So it “seems” to be some change combined between WP 3.6.x and BP 1.8.x. I don’t know enough about it to add anything else.
If you have any further details to pass, @ddarby14, that would be great.
Can I just say that this problem is definitely NOT resolved!
You can’t claim that installing another plugin solves a problem with yours. Personally, I can’t get Mail Queues plugin to work, so I still very much have this issue.
BTW, if anyone’s wondering, BuddyPress 1.9 doesn’t solve the problem 🙁
