Dynamic Time for PHP Website [closed] - php

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I am working on making a website for my group that hosts a couple of game servers. In the process I have made a website that pings the server, and in return displays whether it is up or down. I want to be able to say that if it is down, you can email me. That part works. What I don't want is for a user to be able to keep emailing me, after they sent it once.
I was wondering if I can somehow make a script that when any user clicks the link to email me, that NO other user can email me for about another hour. I figure this would have to be something server sided. I made a script in the past, and it works it adds one hour when someone clicks the link. Problem is when said user goes back to that directory, they can click it again because the time did not save. I also want it to that if multiple users click on the link at the same time it only adds 1 hour, not multiple (Example, 3 users are at the website 2 users click the notify it would add 2 hours instead of just 1.)
Any hints in the right direction would be great. I thought about using MySQL but don'w want to unless if absolutely needed (Don't know how possible it is with our Database setup)

Answer 1

One other option would be to have a file sitting somewhere on the server that contains a file with the time of the last sent message written inside of it, then comparing that to the current time. Here's a rough example (note that the example is not secure and needs to be sanitized before accepting raw user input, but hopefully it'll point you in the right direction):
<?php
send_email();
function maindir() {
// This will need to be set to the directory containing your time file.
$cwd = '/home/myusername/websites/example.com';
return $cwd;
}
function update_timefile() {
$cwd = maindir();
// The file that will contain the time.
$timefile = 'timefile.txt';
$time = time();
file_put_contents("$cwd/$timefile", $time);
}
function send_email() {
// Note: this should be sanitized more and have security checks performed on it.
// It also assumes that your user's subject and message have been POSTed to this
// .php file.
$subject = ($_POST && isset($_POST['subject']) && !empty($_POST['subject'])) ? $_POST['subject'] ? FALSE;
$message = ($_POST && isset($_POST['message']) && !empty($_POST['message'])) ? $_POST['message'] ? FALSE;
if ($subject && $message) {
$to = 'me#example.com';
$cwd = maindir();
$timefile = 'timefile.txt';
// Current time
$timenow = time();
// Read the time from the time file
$timeget = file_get_contents("$cwd/$timefile");
// Calculate the difference
$timediff = $timenow - $timeget;
// If the difference is greater than or equal to the current time + 3600 seconds..
if ($timediff >= 3600) {
// ... and if the message gets sent...
if (mail($to, $subject, $message)) {
// ... update the time file.
update_timefile();
}
}
}
}