Reminders and Scheduled Tasks
Next Task's background work runs through Joomla's own Scheduled Tasks (System > Scheduled Tasks): the due-time reminders, the daily digest and the maintenance. The routines come with the Task - Next Task Emails plugin, which the package installs and enables.
These tasks are not created for you: add them once after installing.
The Routines
| Routine | Run it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Next Task: due-time reminders | Every 5 to 15 minutes | Emails each timed task's reminder once its window opens (the due time minus the reminder lead time), once per due date, and adds it to the bell. Prunes the email log after 90 days. |
| Next Task: daily digest | Every hour | Emails each person who wants a digest their open tasks due today and overdue, once their digest time has come, at most once a day. |
| Next Task: maintenance | Every hour or every day | Creates any missing next occurrence of a completed recurring task, permanently removes tasks deleted more than 7 days ago, removes old notifications (read after 30 days, unread after 90) and clears role assignments left by deleted users and groups. |
All of them are safe to run more often than needed: every email is recorded, and a reminder or a digest is never sent twice.
Setting Them Up
- Go to System > Scheduled Tasks and click New.
- Pick Next Task: due-time reminders, give it an interval of 5, 10 or 15 minutes, and save.
- Do the same with Next Task: daily digest (every hour) and Next Task: maintenance (every hour, or once a day at night).
- Make sure the scheduler actually runs:
- Lazy Scheduler (Joomla's default): tasks run when someone visits the site. Fine for a busy site; on a quiet one, reminders arrive late.
- Web Cron: enable it in the Scheduled Tasks Options and call its secret URL from a real cron job (for example every 5 minutes). This is the reliable choice.
- Or run
php cli/joomla.php scheduler:runfrom the server's cron.
Run Test on a task runs it at once; its result says how many emails went out, how many were skipped, and why nothing was sent when that is the case.
Timing
- Reminder lead time (Settings > System): send reminders this many minutes before the due time; 0 (the default) sends at the due time. A reminder missed by up to an hour still goes out; older ones are left to the digest.
- Digest time: each person's own (Settings > Preferences), else the site's Default digest time (09:00 unless changed). The digest routine runs hourly and sends to everyone whose time has come.
- Every time is in the Joomla site time zone (System > Global Configuration > Server > Website Time Zone).
People with the Configuration > Settings permission also find Run due reminders now in Settings > System, which sends the reminders that are due without waiting for the scheduler.
Who Gets What
- A reminder goes to the task's assignee, or to the list's owner when nobody is assigned; on a team list, only to an assignee.
- The digest goes to the people who switched it on, plus, when Daily digest on by default is on (it is off by default), everyone who never saved their preferences.
- Each person can switch reminders, the digest and assignment emails off in Settings > Preferences. Blocked accounts get nothing.
When Nothing Is Sent
- No mail on the site. With Joomla's mail switched off (Global Configuration > Server > Send Mail), the routines report it and send nothing, without failing. Due reminders still reach the bell.
- The Reminders & Digest app is off in the App Manager.
- The scheduler doesn't run. Check the task's last run in System > Scheduled Tasks, and switch to Web Cron.
- The task has no time. Date-only tasks send no reminder; they are in the digest.
- The person opted out, or never switched the digest on.
Mail failures are written to the Next Task log (administrator/logs/com_nexttask.php) and never stop the routine.