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Redis Queue for WordPress

NOTE: This is experimental, you might not need it :bowtie:

Robust Redis-backed background job processing for WordPress. Provides prioritized, delayed, and retryable jobs with an admin UI, REST API, token-based auth (scopes + rate limiting), and extensibility for custom job types.

A production-ready queue system for WordPress, following best practices and patterns.

Redis Queue Admin Dashboard Screenshot

Core:

  • Priority + delayed + retryable jobs
  • Redis (phpredis or Predis) abstraction
  • Memory/timeouts and job metadata persistence

Built‑in Jobs:

  • Email delivery (single/bulk)
  • Image processing (thumbnails, optimization)
  • Generic API / webhook style jobs

Interfaces:

  • Admin dashboard (stats, browser, test tools, purge, debug)
  • REST API (create jobs, trigger worker, health, stats)

Security & Control:

  • Capability or API token auth
  • Token scopes (worker, full)
  • Per-token rate limiting
  • Structured request logging with rotation

Extensibility:

  • Simple Abstract_Base_Job subclassing
  • Filters for dynamic job instantiation

TL;DR: see docs/README.md for overview, docs/usage.md for operations, and docs/extending-jobs.md for custom jobs.

WordPress Tasks That can Benefit from Redis Queues

Section titled “WordPress Tasks That can Benefit from Redis Queues”
  • Bulk email sending (newsletters, notifications)
  • Transactional emails (order confirmations, password resets)
  • Email campaign processing
  • Benefits: Prevents timeouts, improves user experience, handles SMTP failures gracefully
  • Thumbnail generation for multiple sizes
  • Image optimization (compression, format conversion)
  • Watermark application
  • Benefits: Reduces page load times, prevents memory exhaustion
  • CSV/XML imports (products, users, posts)
  • Database migrations
  • Content synchronization between sites
  • Benefits: Handles large datasets without timeout issues
  • Search index updates (Elasticsearch, Algolia)
  • Cache warming after content updates
  • Content analysis (SEO scoring, readability)
  • Benefits: Keeps content fresh without blocking user interactions
  • Social media posting (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)
  • CRM synchronization (Salesforce, HubSpot)
  • Analytics data collection (Google Analytics, custom tracking)
  • Benefits: Handles API rate limits and failures gracefully
  • Order processing workflows
  • Inventory synchronization
  • Payment verification processes
  • Benefits: Ensures order integrity and improves checkout experience
  • Scheduled post publishing
  • Content distribution to multiple platforms
  • SEO metadata generation
  • Benefits: Reliable scheduling and cross-platform consistency
  • User registration workflows
  • Profile data enrichment
  • Permission updates across systems
  • Database backups
  • File system backups
  • Remote backup uploads
  • Report generation
  • Data aggregation
  • Performance metrics calculation
  1. WordPress: Version 6.7 or higher
  2. PHP: Version 8.3 or higher
  3. Redis Server: Running Redis instance
  4. Redis PHP Extension OR Predis Library: One of these for Redis connectivity
Terminal window
# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install php-redis
# macOS with Homebrew
brew install php-redis
# CentOS/RHEL
sudo yum install php-redis
Terminal window
# In your WordPress root or plugin directory
composer require predis/predis
  • Quick Install

    • Download redis-queue.zip
    • Upload via Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin
    • Activate the plugin.
  • Composer Install

    Terminal window
    composer require soderlind/redis-queue
  • Updates

Navigate to Redis Queue > Settings in your WordPress admin to configure:

  • Redis Host: Your Redis server hostname (default: 127.0.0.1)
  • Redis Port: Redis server port (default: 6379)
  • Redis Database: Database number 0-15 (default: 0)
  • Redis Password: Authentication password (if required)
  • Worker Timeout: Maximum job execution time (default: 30 seconds)
  • Max Retries: Failed job retry attempts (default: 3)
  • Retry Delay: Base delay between retries (default: 60 seconds)
  • Batch Size: Jobs per worker execution (default: 10)

You can also configure via environment variables or wp-config.php:

wp-config.php
define( 'REDIS_QUEUE_HOST', '127.0.0.1' );
define( 'REDIS_QUEUE_PORT', 6379 );
define( 'REDIS_QUEUE_PASSWORD', 'your-password' );
define( 'REDIS_QUEUE_DATABASE', 0 );
  • View real-time queue statistics
  • Monitor system health
  • Trigger workers manually
  • View job processing results
  • Browse all jobs with filtering
  • View detailed job information
  • Cancel queued or failed jobs
  • Monitor job status changes

Create test jobs to verify functionality:

Email Job Example:

Type: Single Email
To: admin@example.com
Subject: Test Email
Message: Testing Redis queue system

Image Processing Example:

Operation: Generate Thumbnails
Attachment ID: 123
Sizes: thumbnail, medium, large

API Sync Example:

Operation: Webhook
URL: https://httpbin.org/post
Data: {"test": "message"}
  1. Install a Redis server (or use existing) and ensure the phpredis extension or Predis library is available.
  2. Clone into wp-content/plugins/ and activate.
  3. Configure Redis + queue settings under: Redis Queue → Settings.
  4. Create a test job via the admin Test interface or REST API.
  5. Run workers manually (admin button) or on a schedule (cron / wp-cli / external runner).
Terminal window
git clone https://github.com/soderlind/redis-queue.git wp-content/plugins/redis-queue

Optionally add Predis:

Terminal window
composer require predis/predis

Define environment constants (optional) in wp-config.php:

define( 'REDIS_QUEUE_PORT', 6379 );
define( 'REDIS_QUEUE_DATABASE', 0 );

Then enqueue a job programmatically:

use Soderlind\RedisQueue\Jobs\Email_Job;
$job = new Email_Job([
'email_type' => 'single',
'to' => 'admin@example.com',
'subject' => 'Hello',
'message' => 'Testing queue'
]);
redis_queue()->queue_manager->enqueue( $job );

Process jobs:

redis_queue_process_jobs(); // helper or via admin UI

See Usage & REST docs for deeper examples.

TopicLocation
Documentation indexdocs/README.md
Usage & operationsdocs/usage.md
REST API (auth, scopes, rate limits)docs/worker-rest-api.md
Creating custom jobsdocs/extending-jobs.md
Scaling strategiesdocs/scaling.md
Maintenance & operationsdocs/maintenance.md
This overviewREADME.md

Use this plugin to offload expensive or slow tasks: emails, media transformations, API calls, data synchronization, indexing, cache warming, and other background workloads that should not block page loads.

  • WordPress plugin bootstrap registers queue manager + job processor
  • Redis stores queue + delayed sets; MySQL stores durable job records
  • Synchronous worker invoked via admin, REST, or scheduled execution
  • Job lifecycle: queued → (delayed ready) → processing → success/failure (with retry window)
  • Filters allow custom job class instantiation by type
  1. Default capability check (manage_options).
  2. Optional API token (bearer header) with: scope, rate limiting, request logging.
  3. Filters to customize allowed routes per scope.

Full details: see the REST API documentation.

Implement a subclass of Abstract_Base_Job, override get_job_type() + execute(), optionally should_retry() and handle_failure(). Register dynamically with the redis_queue_create_job filter. Full guide: Extending Jobs.

Examples:

Terminal window
# Cron (every minute)
* * * * * wp eval "redis_queue()->process_jobs();"

For higher throughput run multiple workers targeting distinct queues.

  • WordPress 6.7+
  • PHP 8.3+
  • Redis server
  • phpredis extension OR Composer + Predis

Contributions welcome. Please fork, branch, commit with clear messages, and open a PR. Add tests or reproducible steps for behavior changes.

GPL v2 or later. See LICENSE.

Made with ❤️ by Per Søderlind


For detailed usage, advanced features, troubleshooting, and performance tuning visit the Usage guide. Additional topics: Scaling, Maintenance.