• Resolved forevermaat

    (@forevermaat)


    I wanted to recommend that you randomize the setting where the user is asked how often to scan. Mainly, we want to randomize the time

    For hourly, we may want to +/-20 minutes

    For daily, we may want to -/+60 min from the requested time.

    For weekly, maybe +/- 180 minutes

    Best to use seconds delimiter so that you can get a more precise random value down to the second.

    If I choose to request a scan daily, you don’t want everyone using the plugin to scan at exactly 02:00. Some people will scan at 01:20, some people will scan at 02:16, etc

    And you could even make visible the min and max randomizer values so that users can edit them.

    The user picking a more convenient time alone is insufficient. You must add this randomizer to make the scan time less exact. And the user can just use a really low value of 0 or 1 if they want the precise time run. So original functionality is not lost.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Plugin Author robertabela

    (@robert681)

    Thank you very much for using our plugin @forevermaat

    Can you explain in more detail what you had in mind and what are the benefits of having “random” scan times? We’d like to better understand your requirements to see how we can better help you and also improve the plugin.

    Looking forward to hearing from you.

    Thread Starter forevermaat

    (@forevermaat)

    @robert681 If you set the scan time to be exact (say 02:00 server time), then every script installed will start at 02:00. But adding a customizable min/max value which is then added or subtracted from this time will allow it to start at a slightly different time each day. (01:58, 02:11, 02:17, etc)

    I suppose the value here is much less…..with a plugin that only checks files/folders on the same server–because there isn’t much contact with outside servers in order to gather additional intelligence. Because then you definitely do not want everyone to request this intelligence download at the same time.

    A website scraper for example would want this randomized time to initialize the scrape; to make their scrapes a bit less robotic looking to the target server.

    • This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by forevermaat.
    Plugin Author robertabela

    (@robert681)

    Thank you for the explanation, however, I am still not understanding the benefit of it. I understood how you’d like it to work, but what are the benefits of not having a fixed time?

    I’d really like to understand this so we can take an informed decision when / if making any changes to the plugin.

    Looking forward to hearing from you.

    Thread Starter forevermaat

    (@forevermaat)

    I was thinking it might interfere with other plugins/server scripts (for server resources while WFCM is running scan). But on second thought, I figured the webmaster would be more aware of what internal scripts/cron jobs need to be run on that site and would therefore just schedule the scan at a more convenient time.

    It’s not like a script that would require more randomization. Like if you are connecting to 3rd party database/page. You don’t want everyone connecting/running scripts at exactly the same time. WFCM plugin is just used internally.

    Now if WFCM is ever going to be scanning remote sites, then you would need to add +/- times to start with randomizer. So for now, I will mark this as resolved.

    • This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by forevermaat.
    • This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by forevermaat.
    Plugin Author robertabela

    (@robert681)

    Thank you for the explaining the thought behind your idea.

    Should you have any other questions and suggestions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

    Have a great day.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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