Automated property matching and email alerts

One of the key features of Property Hive is that you can set it to automatically match new properties to the market to existing applicants, or vice versa, and send email alerts accordingly.

How to enable automatic matching

Automatic matching is disabled by default when you install Property Hive.

To activate this feature simply navigate to 'Property Hive > Settings > Emails' and tick the 'Automatically send matching properties to applicants' checkbox.

Once ticked, any properties added and put on the market going forward will automatically be sent to suitable applicants.

Enabling automatic matching on a per applicant basis

As well as controlling whether automatic matching is running at a global level using the setting above, you can also control whether it is enabled for individual applicants.

Enabled by default, you can disable it for applicants by simply navigating to the 'Relationships' tab of a contact record and tick the setting in the applicant's requirements accordingly:

Customising the email alert content

By navigating to 'Property Hive > Settings > Emails' you'll have the ability to customise the email subject and body used for email alerts:

Customising the email alert layout

By navigating to 'Property Hive > Settings > Emails' you'll have a few settings regarding the branding of the email alerts sent out:

For more control over the actual layout and structure of the HTML emails, the default email templates can be overridden by copying them to your theme and making any changes there.

The email queue and why emails are sent out in batches

When a mailout is performed and emails are sent, we don't send them there and then that second. You might notice under the 'History & Notes' tab that it reads something like so:

This is because they go into an email queue and get processed in batches.

You can get to the email queue and find out more by navigating to 'Property Hive > Settings > Emails > Email Queue'.

Viewing sent mailouts

Aside from the email queue (mentioned above) where we log all email mailouts sent, you can also see any sent mailouts on the contact record.,

Under the 'History & Notes' tab we'll show any mailouts sent to this contact, including the date and time that the mailout was sent, as well as the ability to view the email to see exactly what they were sent:

Important: Using an SMTP plugin

If you're sending any kind of email from your website such as property enquiries, email alerts or booking confirmations, we highly recommend that you use an SMTP plugin to send emails via an SMTP server.

Without this, emails will be sent via the server which could decrease deliverability and increase the chances of emails getting missed because they're going into users junk folders.

Automated tasks

This matching process is designed in such a way that it runs automatically in the background.

As a result, we need automated tasks in WordPress to be working.

How automated tasks work in WordPress

By default WordPress has it's own in-built automated tasks management service called WP-Cron.

The WordPress docs cover this in more but, in a nutshell, it relies on visitors to the site in order to trigger an automated task firing.

This means if the matching process is due to run at 2pm, but nobody visits the site until 4pm, the matching won't run until then.

Changing to a Linux cron job

If your site doesn't get much traffic, or you're having issues with WordPress firing the automated tasks, setting up a Linux cron job is the best approach.

Although it requires a level of technical expertise there are hundreds of guides about how to do this online:

https://easyengine.io/tutorials/wordpress/wp-cron-crontab/

https://kinsta.com/knowledgebase/wordpress-cron-job/#how-to-add-a-cron-job-using-cpanel

https://www.hostgator.com/help/article/how-to-replace-wordpress-cron-with-a-real-cron-job

Alternatively, any good hosting company should be able to set this up on your behalf.

Debugging automated tasks not running

By far the best way to debug issues with automated tasks not firing is to use a plugin called WP Crontrol.

With the WP Crontrol plugin installed and activated you can navigate to 'Tools > Cron Events' in WordPress where it will show you all the scheduled tasks, but more importantly, if there are any errors with these tasks firing or if they're overdue:

If the plugin reports issues then the solution is to either:

1. Speak to your hosting company. The reason the automated tasks can't fire is down to the server/hosting.
2. Change to use a Linux cron job.