Reference Guide

Store Settings

Scheduled Tasks

Scheduled Tasks are a set of pre-built scripts that can automate some actions in your store. You don't have to do any coding to use Scheduled Tasks. All you have to do is select a task and decide how often you want that task to run.

All Scheduled Tasks have a manual equivalent. That is, somewhere in the admin interface, there is a button you can click which does the same thing as a Scheduled Task. The table below lists all of the Scheduled Tasks (as of 08/30/16), and a link to the manual method where the feature is explained in some detail.

Only one scheduled task can run at a time. If you schedule two tasks to run every day at midnight, both will be put into a queue at midnight, but the second task won't start until the first finishes.

Types of Scheduled Tasks

Note that you won't see the "Standard Scheduled Tasks":

• Standard Scheduled Tasks: Perform Module Cleanup Tasks
• Standard Scheduled Tasks: Delete Expired Shopping Baskets
• Standard Scheduled Tasks: Pack Data Files
• Standard Scheduled Tasks: Run a Feed
• Standard Scheduled Tasks: Process Subscriptions
• Standard Scheduled Tasks: Import
• Standard Scheduled Tasks: Pre-Calculate Discount Prices
• Standard Scheduled Tasks: Delete Cached Product List Entries

Until you install that module. See To Install The Standard Scheduled Tasks Module. All of the other tasks will show up in the Add Scheduled Task dialog box by default.

1. PayPal Express Checkout and/or Payments Pro: Delete Expired PayPal Tokens	When a customer uses PayPal Express to make a purchase in your store, PayPal sends a token to your store database. The token is an alphanumeric string that is PayPal's way of authorizing a transaction for a certain amount of time. You can manually delete PayPal Tokens by going to: > Utilities > Delete PayPal Tokens
2. Template Based Emails: Notify of Payment Card Expiration	The "Notify of Payment card Expiration" is a new template based email added with release 9.0006. It may seem odd to associate a template based email with a scheduled task, because template based emails have their own automation. For example, if you mark an order as back ordered, Miva Merchant can automatically send the customer an email notification, and it doesn't require a scheduled task. All template based emails have to be associated with a trigger; something that causes the email to be sent. In the case of a backorder email, the trigger is a change to the order. The trigger for a Notify of Payment Card Expiration is a scheduled task. You can create a scheduled task that runs occasionally, checks to see if any customer's credit card is about to expire, and sends that customer an email. Without the scheduled task running, there's no way for the system to know if a customer's card is about to expire. See: Example: Notify Customers When Their Credit Cards are About to Expire See also: Order Fulfillment > Template Based Emails Tab > edit the Notify of Payment Card Expiration template > "Send When Payment Card" field.
3. Image Management: Check for Updated Images	See: Check for Updated Images Utilities > Image Management Tab
4. Image Management: Delete Unreferenced Images	Delete all master additional images, and their generated resized images, that are not associated with a product. For more details about Image management see: Utilities > Image Management Tab.
5. Marketplaces: eBay Sync Inventory	You only need a run this scheduled task if you: Are tracking inventory in your Miva store. See Inventory Management. You created a product listing that shares your entire Miva inventory for that product with the listing. For example, say you have a vase product in your Miva store with inventory = 100. You create an eBay listing for the vase and the quantity available in the eBay store will be your whole Miva inventory: 100 vases. If you update your Miva inventory so that you now have 150 vases, the sync scheduled task will also make sure that the eBay listing shows there are now 150 vases available.
6. Marketplaces: Amazon Sync Inventory	See Marketplaces: eBay Sync Inventory.
7. Marketplaces: Amazon Import Orders	An automated alternative to clicking the Amazon Get Orders Button.
8. Marketplaces: Etsy Sync Inventory
9. Marketplaces: Etsy Import Orders	An automated alternative to clicking the Etsy Get Orders Button.
10. Marketplaces: Google Shopping Update All	If you are sending one or more of your Miva store products to be displayed in Google Shopping, this task will re-send each of those products at a scheduled time.
11. Standard Scheduled Tasks: Perform Module Cleanup Tasks	See Perform Module Cleanup Tasks.
12. Standard Scheduled Tasks: Delete Expired Shopping Baskets	An automated alternative to: Data Management > Database Tools Tab > Delete Shopping Baskets. For new 9.0006 stores, the "Delete Expired Shopping Baskets" task is already created and is enabled. For existing stores that update to 9.0006, the task is there, but it's not enabled.
13. Standard Scheduled Tasks: Pack Data Files	An automated alternative to: Data Management > Database Tools Tab > Pack Data Files.
14. Standard Scheduled Tasks: Run a Feed	Feeds let you control the export of data from your Miva Merchant store. This task lets you run a feed based export on a schedule.
15. Standard Scheduled Tasks: Process Subscriptions	Subscriptions let your customer buy products on a regular basis. If you are using subscriptions, this is the only way to automate subscription processing. If you don't use a scheduled task, you would have to manually have check for subscription purchases every day. Subscriptions To Process Subscriptions
16 Standard Scheduled Tasks: Import	An automated alternative to: The General Process of Importing To avoid importing the same data more than once, check the “Delete File After Import” box. Import options include any of the default options (Add/Update Gift Certificates from CSV, etc.) or users can create their own. For example, a store owner might automatically import inventory data.
17 Standard Scheduled Tasks: Pre-Calculate Discount Prices	When you pre-calculate discount prices, it reduces load time since the discounted prices are saved in cache memory. This scheduled task allows you to calculate current discounts and/or discounts a specified time in the future.
18 Standard Scheduled Tasks: Delete Product List Cache Entries	This scheduled task allows you to delete cached product lists – expired or all.

Example: Notify Customers When Their Credit Cards are About to Expire

1. Setup the template based email.

1.1. Go to > Order Fulfillment Settings > Template Based Emails tab.

1.2. Double-click on Payment Card Expiring.

1.3. In the Edit Email dialog box, make sure that you configure the Send When Payment Card field.



In our example, we'll send an email to any customer in our store database whose credit card will expire in 30 days.

1.4. When you are done with the Edit Email dialog box, click Save.

2. Setup the scheduled task.

2.1. Go to > Store Settings > Scheduled Tasks tab.

2.2. In the Scheduled Tasks tab, click Create New Scheduled Task .

2.3. In the Add Scheduled Task dialog box:

2.3.1. Check the Enabled checkbox.

2.3.2. Enter a Description for this task

2.3.3. In the Operation field, select Template Based Emails: Notify of Payment Card Expiration.

2.3.4. Set a schedule for the task.

2.3.5. When you are done, click Add.



To Install The Standard Scheduled Tasks Module

1. Go to > Utilities > Add/Remove Modules > Available Modules section.
2. In the box "Standard Scheduled Tasks", click Install.

To Create a New Scheduled Task

1. Go to > Store Settings > Scheduled Tasks tab.
2. In the Scheduled Tasks tab, click Create New Scheduled Task .



2.1. Configure the fields in the Add Scheduled Task dialog box, then click Add

Enabled:	Check the Enabled checkbox to allow this task to run in your store. You can uncheck this box if you don't want the task to run, but you don't want to delete it.
Description:	Enter some descriptive text for the task
Trigger:	Trigger name
Trigger Delay:	Enter the number of seconds to wait before triggering the scheduled task
Operation:	Select the task that you want to run. See Types of Scheduled Tasks for more information.
Schedule:	Run Once, Then Disable: Every < > Minute(s) / Hour(s) / Day(s)
Place Store in Maintenance Mode While Task is Running	You might want to select this option if you feel that the task would interfere with customers in your store. For more information about Maintenance Mode, see: Store Settings > Store Details Tab > Maintenance Mode Section
Give Customers < > minute(s) Warning	You can have a message appear in your store warning customers that the store is about to go into Maintenance Mode. For more information, see: Store Settings > Store Details Tab > Maintenance Mode Section
Next Run:
Last Run	A read only field that shows the last time this task ran.

To Edit an Existing Scheduled Task

1. Go to > Store Settings > Scheduled Tasks tab.
2. Double-click on an existing task, or select a task and click Edit Scheduled Task .