How to use the "cron queue" feature (which is for queueing and scheduling emails)

How to use the "cron queue" feature (which is for queueing and scheduling emails)

How to use the "cron queue" feature (which is for queueing and scheduling emails)

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[] We can add a “cron queue” to any campaign and then link to step 2 and link to step 3 (if a 3 step campaign) emails will be queued correctly. Agents don’t have to do anything special, and the verify step 1 (or step 2) “accept” button simply becomes an “add to email queue” button. This functionality is ready to go in the current backoffice.

 [] The Update Application Stage widget teases us with "Step 1 Verified / Build Mail" and "Step 2 Ready / Build Mail" stages. So we feel like we can discriminate and only queue certain applications or certain campaigns. However my testing has revealed that there is an immediately expiring links issue when using this feature. 

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UPDATE 25/01/2019: According to Peter and Nina, this feature is just for step 2 link emails (and not, for example, offer emails).

UPDATE 08/08/2019: According to Daniel's testing on his local environment, this is also for step 3 link emails (when it is a 3-step campaign).

UPDATE 09/08/2019: Actually, it looks like this will enqueue *offer* emails as well.

In the free flights backoffice (and note not in the offers backoffice) we can add one or more "cron queues" to a campaign.

What is this for?

When a campaign has at least one cron queue enabled, emails that are triggered for that campaign (eg. link-to-step-2 or whatnot) don't get sent out immediately; rather they are queued on the server. Then, when a cron queue date is reached, the system will send out all of the queued emails that it has at that time. The system will then update the cron queue date accordingly. 

Why would we do this?

This is done to have more control over email sending and for administrative / breakage reasons.

How do I configure a cron queue for my campaign?

Navigate to the campaign detail page ("CAMPAIGNS" tab then click the campaign name) and click "Add Cron Queue Item".

A dialogue pops up which isn't super easy to fill in! So let's look at some case studies:

I want emails to go out at the same time every day

OK, let's say you want emails to go out at 22:00 every day starting from the 1st November 2017. You would fill in the dialogue like this:



Which creates a cron queue entry like this:



This cron queue will run when it is due, send out all queued emails, and add 1 day to get the next cron queue date. Thus:



And so on.

I want emails to go out on the same day and time every week

OK, let's say you want emails to go out at 11:30 every Monday starting from the 15th January 2018. You would fill in the dialogue like this:



Which creates a cron queue entry like this:



This cron queue will run when it is due, send out all queued emails, and add 1 week to get the next cron queue date. Thus:


And so on.

Good-to-knows

Please note that, when a cron queue is configured for, say, 10pm then the system will start to send the queued emails at 10pm. Some emails will get sent out after 10pm. It can take tens of minutes to send all emails in very large batches of emails.

A campaign can have more than one cron queue configured.

Cron queues will keep running and updating themselves until deleted or edited.

The dates and time specified and actioned are in UK time (or, more accurately, server time).

Some of the Date Increment settings don't make sense or can cause technical problems. Please see this graphic:



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