When running CT IDX Pro you have the option of disabling WP-Cron and creating server-side cron jobs which will increase the overall performance of your site and reduce all the load that WP-Cron causes as it fires on every visitor hit, rather than just running the IDX data retrieval functions every 20 minutes (general MLS data), every hour (all agent/office data), and every 24 hours (expire listing data).
IMPORTANT: If your server-side cron jobs are not properly set up the IDX will not function, so we do recommend this only for advanced users or you might get your hosting provider to help.
In this example, we’ll use Cloudways our recommended hosting provider, but the same basic principles also apply to other hosts’ running cPanel, WHM, or custom dashboards — you can consult with your hosts’ support or documentation on that.
Suggestions after those steps are complete:
Tip: One of the easiest methods to tell if your new server-side cron jobs are running is to enable debug from Settings > CT IDX Pro > Turn on debug logging (screenshot) > Save Settings, then check back by refreshing the settings page in 10 minutes, if you see the debug file generated your server-side cron jobs are running — however, we do still suggest checking with your hosting provider and verifying with them as well.
If you’re comfortable with command line and your server supports WP-CLI, the process is much simpler and only requires a single command to be run.
wp cron event run idxProCronUpdater