Alex

Batch processing is a common technique when building scalable systems. It allows the system to scale with the needs instead of having a static overhead / demand ratio. In the case of provisioning it may have been fine to run the task when a service is paid for; I'm not quite sure why they used a cron for that. Maybe the developers can shed some light on that. But, in the case of downloading ticket emails it is clear why they used a cron, because there is no other trigger to tie the event to. For me it's less about whether these should be cron jobs at all and more about making sure the individual cron tasks are flexible enough to be run more frequently than 5 minutes.

A couple of ideas for this have cropped up over here: http://www.blesta.com/forums/index.php?/topic/1022-enforce-two-factor-authentication-for-all-staff-accounts/?p=8374 Thought it might be helpful if I connected the dots over here in this thread.

Yep, though I don't think they've confirmed any option like the "Present two-factor auth during client sign-up" one I've proposed above, similar to the admin one you've proposed but for clients. It's actually more important to us that we can force two-factor auth for staff than providing it to clients is, but I will go ahead and post a link to here in that other thread just to make sure the developers see my recommendation about the client end.

It depends on the task the cron is performing. I deal with a multitude of vendors whom have ticketing systems and none of them wait more than 1 minute to poll the mail server for new tickets. (Rackspace, Google, Enom... none of them, even the "larger providers".) Not that I have access to their systems, but the fact that emails sent to them consistantly receives an automated receipt confirmation response email from their ticket system in less than a minute... A cron is just the scheduled execution of a task, so stating any cron frequency is "standard" really makes no sense considering that cron frequency should depend on the task the cron is executing. In the case of downloading tickets, I would argue that the "standard" frequency is more often than 5 minutes. Yes, this is another good example where increased cron frequency would be useful. Blesta already has the flexibility to schedule particular tasks to happen more often than others, so I can't see why this would be a big development task. We would just need to change our cron job to run every minute if they add the option for some tasks to be that frequent. But, tasks scheduled at 5 minute intervals would still only be run every 5 minutes, based on the testing I have done with the current system.

No, that is the frequency in which the system will perform the action. So, the system will do it every 5 minutes if you set it to that, for example, 12:05, 12:10, 12:15, etc. If a client signs up at 12:06 they wait 4 minutes. If they sign up at 12:09 they wait 1 minute. If you disable a particular cron it will not cause that action to execute instantly, but rather it will not be executed at all! Hopefully I've responded quick enough to catch you before you disable the provisioning of pending orders.

I'm quite familiar with what a cron job is, as is evident by this thead... But, I don't know what you're talking about. Ideally you're sending email from a decent server in a real data center..? You make it sound like everyone is using a circa 2001 laptop in their basement on dial-up as a mail server.

Oooh, I see "Dedicated IP" and "SSL Certificate" functionality. I'm going to go ahead and buy this now before the sale is over.

Has this been duplicated by anyone else?

If your mail server can't handle sending 10 emails per minute, or even 100 for that matter, then I would say it's probably time to consider a dedicated mail provider. Furthermore, mail servers have an internal mail queue to prevent any real harm from rapid sending, as the mails will "wait in line until it is their turn" when load is high. But realistically, I've managed mail servers which handle 10+ emails sent per minute regularly for years on end without even a reboot. Regardless, the cron is granular and adjustable enough that if a particular setting causes you issues it can be tweaked. Maybe we should have 1, 2, 3 and 5 minute options for those cases?

I apologize if this request is redundant, though I am curious to hear the general positon from Paul as to whether it is a goal of Blesta to handle full accounting or just billing. I think expenses represent the logical next step in handling accounting but alone it doesn't imply an intention to completely handle accounting. My real question is will Blesta work towards becoming a replacement for my QuickBooks or are they sticking to being the intermediate billing software?

I don't understand. We have costs associated with the Add-On, so it shouldn't be included for free by default if that is what you're saying.

Does the LogicBoxes module have official issues or is it a problem specific to your install? I need to begin using the module soon. If you can open source the back-end you've implemented so far I can help to put a nice front-end on it. I have no problem contributing if it is free and open source. I'm also very busy but if you've got the back-end completed I should be able to put together a front-end pretty quickly.

If configurable options and 3.1 will indeed be months out, the best way to give us a work-around for our issues with selling some products is to get CORE-714 resolved so that we can handle those products internally without them being presented to the client. (And without us manually adding entries to invoices with no recurring or module functionality) Ref: http://www.blesta.com/forums/index.php?/topic/1027-core-715-lives-on/

It means nothing? You mean it is equivalent to "No add-ons for this purchase" ? If so, that is quite misleading in this circumstance.

This may be a seperate issue, but: I'm not sure where this "Default" radio button is generated from? In my universal module product for Dedicated IP we only have checkbox product/service options set up, no radio buttons.

Hey guys, Currently Blesta only allows a maximum cron frequency of 5 minutes for any particular task. I would like to see more frequent options, especially for ticket importing from email where you do not want a 5 minute delay if a customer is seeking technical support. If the mail is going to bounce because they need to use an e-mail which they have on file for the department to accept the mail, you also do not want a 5 minute delay sending that response to them. Thanks, Alex

I would definitely like to see forcing two-factor auth for staff as an option. I also look forward to making it an option for clients. I'd like it if clients were presented with the same forced two-factor screen during sign up but it had some explanation and an opt-out "Skip" link in case they don't want to do it. (But they should be able to configure it later if they like.) Maybe an option like "Present two-factor auth during client sign-up" could handle this.

Do you guys plan to add expense tracking and other accounting functionality into Blesta, or will it remain strictly a billing software to be used in combination with accounting software for expenses, ledger, taxes, etc?

The order system improvements slated for 3.1 are invaluable. I advocate for getting that done ASAP at all costs, even if no more bugs are addressed until after the release of 3.1. For us and others I know, the limitations surrounding configurable options, the universal module, the order system and resulting checkout are easily the biggest hurdle in the way of us selling all of our products through Blesta.

Hey guys, I have a universal module Add-On package group with a single package connected with it. When I set that package to "Restricted" or "Invalid" it will still appear in the "Available Add-Ons" during check out. You can see what I mean at the bottom of this page: https://fullambit.net/portal/plugin/order/main/configure/Web%20Hosting/?pricing_id=1&group_id=2 The Dedicated IP package is currently Restricted, although the behavior is the same if it is changed to Invalid. Thanks, Alex

Yep, I can confirm that the issue persists... https://fullambit.net/portal/plugin/order/main/configure/Dedicated%20Server/?pricing_id=69&group_id=6 {"Hostname":{ "valid":{ "rule":"isEmpty", "negate":true, "message":"You must enter a Hostname." } }}

Can anyone clarify for me: What does "Enable HTML" in Settings -> Company -> Email do exactly? If it's disabled (which it is) could that be the cause of what I experienced? If so and HTML will never be sent out without this setting enabled, why not disable/hide the HTML tab in the various other parts of Blesta if that settings is off?

Wise choice.

My staff has pointed out to me that the ability to move a response/note from one ticket to another would be quite useful to them. This is nothing super urgent but it's something we would like to see in a future update. e.g. If a customer continues responding to one ticket with different issues, we can create a new ticket and split it out without asking the customer to create a new ticket. (We hate putting the clients through that instead of just helping them with no hassle.)

Just to clear: The part about the content not appearing in the summary: this is an even further reaching bug. I have found that any mail sent via SMTP never contains the content in the log, but if I use PHP piping then the log will contain the content. Paul/Cody/Tyson/CubicWebs: If any of you'd like to have a go testing issues on my server I will be happy to create an admin account with access to a test support department for you.