PHP script on host times out before finished - php

Question

I spoke to the one.com support who said that their servers times out after 50 seconds.
The problem is, that it the script times out before it's finished. How can I make the script loop until it is finished?
This is my script:
<?php
//$id = $_GET['id'];
//$content = file_get_contents("http://www.boligsiden.dk/salg/$id");
$con=mysqli_connect("danico.dk.mysql","danico_dk","password hidden","danico_dk");
// Check connection
if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: " . mysqli_connect_error();
}
$result = mysqli_query($con,"SELECT * FROM elements");
$int = 0;
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result)) {
if($int < 500 && $row['link'] != "," && $row['link'] != "") {
$link = $row['link'];
$content = file_get_contents("http://www.boligsiden.dk/salg/$link");
preg_match('#"LatLng":{"Lat":(.*?),"Lng":#', $content, $match1);
$lat = $match1[1];
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>" . $lat . "</td>";
echo "</tr>";
$int = $int + 1;
}
}
?>
The time limit can not be overwritten. The default value on one.com host is always 50 seconds.

Answer 1

Like other answers said, you should use set_time_limit( int $seconds_before_timeout ) but no need to put it in the loop:
set_time_limit(0) will cut off any timing out (except in safe mode).
You should add a caching system: once you've retried your data with file_get_contents(), you could save it to a local file (like /cache/boligsiden/salg/$link.dat) so next time, if the cache is recent (you decide what "recent" means), you'll get the local file instead of doing a long-time-consumming http request.
One solution:
<?php
$con=mysqli_connect("danico.dk.mysql","danico_dk","password hidden","danico_dk");
if (mysqli_connect_errno())
{
echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: " . mysqli_connect_error();
exit();
// else, script will continue...
// You could use a throw new Exception(...) instead
}
$result = mysqli_query($con,"SELECT * FROM elements WHERE `link`!=',' and `link`!='' LIMIT 500");
// Way easier to put the conditions on the query itself
// as your query is not reused anywhere else
set_time_limit(0); // No timeout
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result))
{
// No more if there since the query itself managed it faster
$link = $row['link'];
$content = file_get_contents("http://www.boligsiden.dk/salg/$link");
preg_match('#"LatLng":{"Lat":(.*?),"Lng":#', $content, $match1);
$lat = $match1[1];
echo "<tr><td>$lat</td></tr>";
}
set_time_limit(30); // From now on, script will timeout again
// That line can be removed depending on what's coming next
// Aka if you still want the script to not timeout, remove that line
?>
set_time_limit() : http://php.net/set_time_limit

Answer 2

You can change the time the script is allowed to run:
set_time_limit(300); // allow a maximum execution time of 5 minutes
Warning
This function has no effect when PHP is running in safe mode. There is no workaround other than turning off safe mode or changing the time limit in the php.ini.
Warning
Be careful with this option. Wrong usage can lead to scripts that never end. Putting in a definite time limit, at the top of your script is the safest way to go.