How HuntBee automation works

Events, Queues & Cron

The workflow is straightforward: events notice changes, queues remember work that can wait, and cron processes that work in the background.

Think of a restaurant

Event = waiter notices an order

Something happened in OpenCart.

Queue = order ticket

The work is recorded so it is not forgotten.

Cron = kitchen timer

Background workers regularly process due work.

1. Events

An OpenCart event lets HuntBee react when something happens, such as a product being added, edited or deleted. Events are useful because HuntBee does not need to modify the OpenCart core file for every feature.

Example: you edit a product. An event can tell Product Tags, Related Products, IndexNow or AI Feed invalidation that the product changed.

You normally do not configure individual events yourself. The Suite installer registers and repairs the events it owns.

2. Queues

Some work is too slow or too large to perform while you are waiting for a Save button. A queue stores small work items for later processing.

Product updated

Work added to queue

Admin page finishes quickly

Background worker processes queue

Why queues are safer

Large jobs are split into smaller batches.
A temporary failure does not require starting the entire catalog again.
Shared hosting is less likely to hit a long request timeout.
The admin user does not need to keep a browser tab open for every automatic job.

3. Cron / Scheduler

The server cron is simply a regular call to HuntBee. For SEO Suite, configure one central scheduler every minute. HuntBee checks its own task frequencies and only runs jobs that are due.

You do not need nine server cron jobs. One HuntBee SEO Suite cron call can service IndexNow, Product Tags, Related Products, AI Content, Image Organizer and other registered SEO jobs.

Why can a task be “Every 5 minutes” if the server calls every minute?

Because these are two different timers:

Server timer: “HuntBee, are any jobs due?” — every minute.
Task frequency: “Run this specific job only every 5 minutes / daily / etc.”

What is Scheduler Health?

Cron Manager records a lightweight heartbeat when a genuine automatic scheduler call reaches the store. The dashboard can then show whether automatic scheduling is healthy.

Healthy	A recent automatic call was detected.
Delayed	Calls are arriving, but not as recently as expected.
Attention Required	The automatic scheduler appears to have stopped.
Not Detected	No genuine automatic scheduler call has been recorded yet.

Run Now is not Scheduler Health. Run Now proves that a task can execute when you click it. It does not prove that your hosting control panel is calling the cron automatically.

Which SEO jobs are normally enabled?

Job	Recommended choice
IndexNow Queue	Enabled when IndexNow is enabled.
Product Tags Queue	Enabled when automatic Product Tags are used.
Related Products Queue	Enabled when automatic Related Products are used.
AI Product Feed Refresh	Optional; only after a merchant-feed snapshot exists.
AI SEO Content Generation	Advanced; enable only after manual tests. It may consume AI API credits.
Image Organizer Queue	Optional; enable only when you intentionally queue image changes.
Image Audit / Refresh jobs	Optional maintenance.

What if I do not configure cron?

Manual actions can still work, but queued automatic work may wait indefinitely. For example, IndexNow URLs may remain pending and automatic tags/related products may not process.

Safe troubleshooting order

Open Cron Manager and check Scheduler Health.
Confirm the task itself is enabled.
Check Last Run / Last Status / Last Error.
Click Run Now once.
If Run Now works but automatic health is bad, fix the hosting cron.
If Run Now fails too, inspect the task error and OpenCart log.