Cron - Invalid key value sent

Question

Really getting frustrated trying to get cron to work.

WP 4.7 / CiviCRM 4.7.14

using via ssh:

/usr/bin/wget 'https://hbb.org.uk/wp-content/plugins/civicrm/civicrm/bin/cron.php?name=JohnB&pass=123&key=456'

Generates the error.

my settings.php has:

if (!defined('CIVICRM_SITE_KEY')) { define( 'CIVICRM_SITE_KEY', '456'); }

Where the two keys are identical. There are no special characters, it's a 20 char string, I've re-entered a new string into both settings.php and the wget. Each time generates a new error log file with the msg.

When I enter the url into Chrome I get "Invalid key". Yet they're identical in the wget and settings.php.

Is there some super-sekret settings file somewhere?

Answer 1

Site key should be defined in civicrm.settings.php, not settings.php, which isn't necessarily bootstrapped when cron is run.

If that was mis-stated in your question (likely, since you're using WordPress), you can try to troubleshoot this by debugging.

• Find your CiviCRM log and your CiviCRM root.

• In your CiviCRM root, find the file CRM/Utils/System.php.

• Find this section (around line 553):

  if ($key !== $siteKey) {
    return self::authenticateAbort(
      "ERROR: Invalid key value sent. " . $docAdd . "\n",
      $abort
    );   
  }  
  

• Add two debugging lines so that section now looks like:

  if ($key !== $siteKey) {
    CRM_Core_Error::debug_var('key', $key);
    CRM_Core_Error::debug_var('siteKey', $siteKey);
    return self::authenticateAbort(
      "ERROR: Invalid key value sent. " . $docAdd . "\n",
      $abort
    );   
  }  
  

• Run your cron job again, get the same error.

• Check the CiviCRM log. At or very near the bottom of the log file, you should see lines that look like:

  $key = 456;
  $siteKey = 456;
  

...except I'm guessing that one of them looks slightly wrong! Use that information to either fix this problem and/or update this question with more info.