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Scheduled tasks

QuillThreads ships a task plugin (plg_task_quillthreads) that adds four routines to Joomla's built-in Scheduler. They keep the component tidy and do work in the background so you do not have to. None of them are required, but a couple are well worth setting up.

Enabling the plugin​

  1. Go to System → Manage → Plugins and search for quillthreads.
  2. Open Task - QuillThreads and set Status to Enabled.

Adding a task​

Joomla runs scheduled tasks from System → Manage → Scheduled Tasks:

  1. Click New.
  2. Pick one of the QuillThreads task types (below).
  3. Give it a name and a schedule (for example, daily at 03:00, or every 15 minutes).
  4. Set any task-specific options.
  5. Save.

For the Scheduler to actually fire, Joomla needs either its built-in "lazy" web trigger (on by default) or a real system cron calling the Joomla CLI. A real cron is the reliable choice for a busy site.

The tasks​

Moderator digest​

Queues a summary email of pending, reported, and spam comments to your moderators. It is the calm alternative to a notification for every single comment: one email, on your schedule, telling you what needs attention.

It uses the moderator addresses from Settings → Notifications (or the site admins if you left that blank) and sends through the Shondalai email queue. A daily or twice-daily schedule suits most sites.

Maintenance​

Housekeeping that enforces your privacy and storage choices:

  • Anonymises old IP hashes past your retention window.
  • Purges old spam and trash so the database does not grow without bound.
  • Removes expired export files left behind by CSV, JSON, and PDF exports.

The task has an IP-days option; leave it at 0 to use the IP retention value from Settings → Privacy. A daily schedule is ideal. If you care about GDPR retention, this is the task that makes "60 days" actually mean 60 days.

Rebuild counts​

Recomputes the cached per-article comment counters from the comments table. QuillThreads keeps these counters up to date as comments come and go, so you rarely need this. Run it occasionally, or once after a large import, to be sure every count is exact.

AI moderation scan​

Scores comments that have not yet been scored with the Shondalai AI service, and optionally holds the high-risk ones. This is the efficient way to run AI moderation: leave "Scan on post" off and let this task work through new comments in batches.

  • It only runs when AI moderation is enabled and an account is connected.
  • It only holds comments when Let AI auto-hold comments is on. It never deletes.
  • Each scored comment spends a little AI credit, so keep the per-run limit modest and the schedule sensible (every 15 to 60 minutes works well).

For a typical site:

  • Maintenance: daily, overnight.
  • Moderator digest: daily, morning.
  • AI moderation scan: every 15 to 30 minutes, if you use AI.
  • Rebuild counts: leave it unscheduled and run it by hand after a big import.