I'm new to server-side programming and running a server in general, and I'm using xampp. I have a hellp.php file in the htdocs directory of xampp, and that's how I run my PHP code. However what I'm looking for, is to have some PHP code execute in the background of my server (not on a webpage). I'm looking for a sort of php application that just runs in the background and does stuff whenever the server starts up.
For example, in this case I want to retrieve some data from Facebook's Graph (a list of conversations from a facebook page) every X seconds and store it in a SQL database somewhere. How can I accomplish this?
Linux
If you're on linux, you can create a cron job as described here by #IliaRostovtsev.
Windows
If you're on windows, use scheduled tasks as described here by #Pierre.
Related
Is there a way for PHP to send a signal to a Windows Server to run a script?
I am writing a web application which generates database entries that are later synced by a program on a remote Windows Server. PHP & mySQL are running on AWS.
The application on the windows server syncs the mySql database with Quickbooks. Ideally I would like to send a signal from PHP so that if PHP has updated the database, letting the remote Windows server know which script to run to in order to initiate the sync program. I would need to be pointed in the right direction both on the PHP commands as well as how to setup the listening service on Windows.
I was thinking if I could get Windows to listen on a specific port for a short XML file, PHP could send a password and entity ID number to identify which script to run.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
You can use php on both end. Just install php server on windows, then when request happened execute a windows command. Php can do that.
I would schedule a task to read a specific file from the windows server side and from the php side you could use cron jobs. This question is too broad though and there are several approaches to that. You need to be more "code" specific.
I'm new to web development. I'm trying to execute a shell script using PHP's shell_exec(). Inside the script, I'm trying to invoke a GUI application(Qt). When I executed the PHP script from a terminal the application started as expected. But when I opened it from browser an empty blank page appeared.
I'm using Ubuntu with apache2 server running as service. When I searched in google, the similar problem is solved in the Windows environment by allowing apache service to interact with the desktop.
PHP Script:
<?php
$log = shell_exec('sh testcmd.sh');
?>
testcmd.sh:
./Program1
Any help provided will be highly appreciated.
It is somewhat unclear what you're asking.
If you wish that browsing to a certain web site will run a PHP script that will open a GUI app for the client to interact with, the answer is "you can't". The reason is that the way the setup works is that the server and the client run on different machines, and your PHP runs on the server machine. As such, the client never gets to see the running program.
The above is true also for Windows. The answer you quote in your question does not apply to a server running on a different machine than the client.
If, for whatever reason, you want something that works only when the server and client run on the same machine (or there is someone watching the server's display), then you need to do the equivalent of the Windows answer.
The graphics display on Linux (assuming you're not running wayland) is using a protocol called X11. In order for the display to appear, your GUI program needs two things. The first is to know which display it needs to use. This is supplied with an environment variable called DISPLAY. The second is an authorization to actually use that display.
So in order for your PHP script to run a GUI app that will show its GUI, you will need to first do the following steps:
Set the DISPLAY variable to the correct value (copy from your desktop environment).
Run xauth add something, where you can get what something is by running xauth list on your desktop environment.
If you do these two things (in this order), your GUI should show up.
I am studying on YouTube HTML5 forms with PHP files; the videos either start with a web page containing the form and link to a PHP file or they put everything in php files; I copy the instructors exact files; but they do not work: nothing is posted after filling the form and hitting the submit button.
I have had the files on a USB flash drive then tried them actually on the computer: nothing.
My question is then: "Do I need to have an actual server on my computer in order for PHP files to function?"
Yes. PHP requires a web server to run on.
You can run it on your own computer; the web server doesn't have to be connected to the internet while you are creating and testing your PHP scripts off your local machine. You can read more about this on the official PHP What do I need page
You can download one of the following local servers:
Windows: WAMP
OSX: MAMP
Linux: LAMP
XAMPP is also an option, it's cross-platform (as referenced by ATechGuy)
Here is a good explanation of Why a web server is required to run PHP. Basically it is because PHP is a dynamic server-side scripting language.
However if you just want to run simple PHP scripts, with no web pages. This is possible without a web server running. See this question: How can I run a php without a web server?
Yes, PHP will need to run on a server in order to execute. If you have a Mac, it should be equipped to run an Apache server. I found this article to be really helpful when developing with PHP - https://jason.pureconcepts.net/2015/10/install-apache-php-mysql-mac-os-x-el-capitan/
Yes. PHP files contain code that must be handled by an interpreter, that is, a program that reads the PHP code and outputs accordingly. This can be done without a webserver (using command line php) but PHP is most commonly used with a web server.
You want to setup some sort of stack with a web server and php. A lot of beginners use apache as a web server, and since you are comfortable using youtube for learning, a simple search for "apache php" and your operating system.
Newly registered user here after being a long time lurker!
I have an Apache 2.2 web server running on Windows locally (for now) as a service, with PHP 5 installed. I'm using PHP's exec() to run a command line client (.exe) hosted on the server, which authenticates the user to a database and makes pre-defined SQL queries on behalf of the user.
My question is: How does Apache run programs requested by multiple users through the (same) PHP exec() command? In this case, will Apache be using the same one instance of the client for all users who will access it, or will Apache be creating a new instance of the client for each user?
Since the client was designed for use by a single user, if Apache does reuse the same instance of a client, it will be running into a lot of concurrency issues.
I appreciate any help I can get, thanks!
PHP launches the process every time PHP calls exec(), and it keeps running for as long as it takes to finish. As such, you will end up with multiple copies of the process running at once if multiple users are simultaneously accessing scripts your web site which trigger it.
Unless you are using some really weird sort of database, there is probably a better way to query it than launching a command-line tool. If there's an ODBC driver available for your database, for instance, you may be able to use it directly via the PHP ODBC extension.
I am getting daily data dump via e-mail, which is being processed by Access (based on the Outlook rule, VBA is extracting the attachment and running Access procedures, so I get a report).
As data dump is getting bigger and bigger, and having in mind that Access is run locally which consumes my resources, I want to set up a PHP/MySQL server to make it more efficient.
The first challenge I face is how to connect Outlook rule with PHP execution? (as I will have Outlook set up on the Windows based machine, with apache/mysql set up (WAMP))
Anyone can share some insights on how to start PHP execution from Outlook?
Thanks for the help!
Srdjan
If you have an existing setup using Access and VBA, and you just need a better database behind it, could you not just use MySQL without PHP and use the MySQL ODBC driver instead of the Access connection you are using at the moment (assuming you are currently using ODBC to connect to the access database)
This way you wouldn't even have to have mysql running locally if the hit is too high on your local machine and it should be pretty straightforward in that you shouldn't have to make to many changes to your vba code.
Of course, whether this will do it depends on what else is going on in your access db
If not you could try using php and using the PHP Command Line Interface (CLI) which you should be able to call as an external executable from Outlook. Just pass php.exe the name of the php script you want to run
UPDATE:
I am not a VBA expert by any means but it looks like the shell function would let you run the PHP CLI from within VBA
Shell("path/to/php.exe phpscript.php")
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xe736fyk(VS.71).aspx
Of course this will only work if you can get to php.exe on the wamp machine (ie is a local machine or you have network access to the appropriate folder)
Alternatively, if the Wamp server is to be a separate machine then you could trigger the php script to be run by calling a url. I think the XMLHTTP object will do this for you
Dim xmh As Object
Set xmh = CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")
xmh.Open "GET", "http://urlofphpserver/script.php", False
xmh.Send