Automatic execution of PHP script

Can anyone help me with this:
I want to execute specific PHP script at the specific time of day automatically. Let say: I want to execute myscript() at 8 P.M. every day (for automatic maintenance purpose). Can be it done by PHP?
Thanks in advance.
Tuan.

 

PHP doesn't have any scheduling features. You'll have to talk to your host to find out if the'll let you use cron or whatever schedule event thing they have.

You can also schedule a task on your computer to run the script from your website as well.

-the mole

 

Some hosting control panel gives you options to set your cron timings from your hosting account. Just check up.

 

If you have no cron but you do have a busy web page, you could do something like embed a small script in that page.

<?php

 $t = date(G);
  if($t =='20'){
   /* DO SOMETHING IF IT'S BETWEEN 8PM AND 9 PM */
  }


 $t = date(Gi);
  if($t =='2000'){
   /* DO SOMETHING IF IT'S BETWEEN 8:00 AND 8:01 */
  }


 $t = date(Gis);
  if($t =='200000'){
   /* DO SOMETHING IF IT'S EXACTLY 8:00 */
  }

?>

PHP:

Of course you'd need to script a lot more into it to prevent it running more than once for the first 2 options but it's a start.

 

I was going to suggest the same exact thing balamm. One thing you could do to prevent it running repeatedly is to create a directory named with the day-month-year. If that directory doesn't exist, then go ahead and run the script, otherwise, do nothing.

Make sure that it deletes yesterday's directory though, or you could run out of space over time.

Also, as mentioned, if you have access to Cron, use that. Any PHP implementation is going to be a LOT of overhead that you just don't need. I recommend dumping it into an include file at the END of the page so that it at least doesn't drag things down between 8 and 9.

Lastly, it's worth noting that the PHP script balamm posted will do absolutely nothing if you don't get any users between 8 and 9pm.

 

Thanks, guys.
Yes, my problem is:
- no cron function
- new web site, that I can't expect that always have some user between the time.
I just implemented similar script, but it seems that I have to visit my site one time per day for maintenance purpose, at least at the begin until I have more visitors.
Once, thanks.

 

Depending on what it's doing, or how time-sensitive, if you set the "start time" to midnight, and create a time-stamped directory when the task begins, you can do away with the end range, effectively eliminating someone having to be there between a given time range.

In that scenario, you'd be good so long as one person visits the site per day.

If it is something fairly critical, I would recommend switching hosts to one that does provide cronjobs. I use Dreamhost, and know that they provide access to per-user crontab.

 

Ya agree with bmelton..
recommend switching hosts to one that does provide cronjobs
if your server side doesnt provide the cronjobs then will screw up..
cronjobs is compulsory for advance server. ok.

 

if you have no traffic yet, and no cron-jobs available, why not setup a script that does your functions that can only execute if the correct username and password querystring's are are passed in. Then build an app that hits that page at your requested interval. Or... (and this is not the slickest way) build a Content-Refresh in your meta on the page. Have it refresh ever - whatever, 100000 seconds or something, then just leave this page open. It will refresh automatically if you leave the webpage open at all times.

 

Just remember the catch with that is that if your connection blinks for a second, or the server isn't available one time, then it's going to refresh to a 404 and the cycle's dead from that point forward.

 

exactly, I would actually advise developing an easy app, sits in systray, and hits X url and collects Status Returned until traffic starts coming in... This way you could set the interval to whatever you want and it will always hit the page you request it to hit. Actually, you might be able to do this with a DTS Too... or hmm, does Apache DB Flavors have DTS's? I know MySQL 5 has some big advancements... but not exactly sure on what.

 

Cronjobs are the surefire way to schedule PHP execution. Most control panels support cron jobs. Something I've noticed recently, as I've been using crons myself quite often, is using a wget command, then the URL to your PHP script works better then executing it as a path. Some of my scripts wouldn't work when I executed it as a path, but I contacted my sysadmin and he set it up so it executed via URL with wget.

 

there are at least dozen of web services out there offering automatic script execution of web scripts in predefined
time intervals. some of them even log your script output.
I have used two of them:
getcron.com - best feature: timezone support
webcron.org - best feature: sms notifications

both have logs and big timeouts.
no need to learn cron commands - just paste the link and using a very easy to use web interface just set the days and hours.

 

Another thing to try is www.setcronjob.com
Reliable and affordable