Transfer time from MySQL database to php countdown - php

I am currently setting up a ban's list for a server I run for the Garry's Mod game.
When I ban someone on the Garry's Mod server it uploads information about the ban onto a MySQL database (as shown below).
I have noticed that it is writing the 'Length' time as a rather long, complicated number which I have no idea about (apart from the '0' number which is a permanant ban).
Some how PHP is writing this number into a date and time format:
<?php if ($row['Length'] == '0')
{
echo "Permanent";
}
elseif($row['Length'] < time())
{
echo "Expired";
}
else
{
echo date("g:ia - d M, Y", $row['Length']);
}
?>
Which ends up looking a little something like this:
This system above is working perfectly well at showing the date when a ban is due to expire.
My main issue is that I would like it to display the time remaining until the ban expires in a hour format (eg. Ban expires in: 67 Hours, 29 Minutes.

This 'complicated number' is Unix timestamp (the number of seconds since January 1 1970 00:00:00). You can for example subtract value of column Length from column Time and calculate from that number of hours and minutes.

You can try
// For example, if you have a +2 timezone, you can do this:
$TimeEDITED = gmdate("H:i:s", time() + 7200);
// ... if you do not:
$TimeNONEDITED = gmdate("H:i:s", time());

Related

Display Database Entities within a specific time frame

I want to display content from the database with dates up to 2hours ahead of time.
Example:
2018-11-09 20:00:00.000000
2018-11-08 19:00:00.000000
2018-11-06 19:00:00.000000
2018-11-06 18:00:00.000000
Lets say the time and date is
Nov 6th at 6pm. I want the bottom two entries to be displayed and the two future dates to not show until the current time is within 2hours of that time.
My code is as follows:
$cT = strtotime($row3['MissionTime']) - strtotime("now");
if($cT <= strtotime('-2 hours')) {
echo $row3['MissionTime']."<br>";
}
I've tried several different ways but I can't seem to get this to work right. Help and tips?
The reason your code doesn't work is that strtotime returns a number of seconds since the unix epoch. When you subtract two results of strtotime you will get a number of seconds difference which is as you expect. However you cannot compare that value to strtotime('-2 hours') as the output of that will be the timestamp for 2 hours before now (which right now is 1541539906), so the test will always pass. You should just compare it to 7200 instead (I'm pretty sure based on your question description that +7200 is more appropriate than -7200). so change
if($cT <= strtotime('-2 hours')) {
to
if($cT <= 7200) {
Note that it is almost certainly better to do this in your query. Try adding a condition on your time column as something like
WHERE MissionTime <= NOW() + INTERVAL 2 HOUR
And then you won't need to check in the PHP at all.
strtotime() returns a timestamp in seconds. Subtracting two timestamps gives you a difference between those two timestamps, in seconds.
So if strtotime($row3['MissionTime']) is a timestamp that's 1.5 hours in the future, and you subtract strtotime("now") from it, you end up with a difference of 5400 seconds (60 seconds * 60 minutes * 1.5 hours).
strtotime('-2 hours') gives you the timestamp for 2 hours ago, which is currently somewhere around 1.5 billion. This is not very useful for your situation.
Here are two ways to modify your code:
$cT = strtotime($row3['MissionTime']) - strtotime("now");
if($cT <= 7200) {
echo $row3['MissionTime']."<br>";
}
If the difference between $row['MissionTime'] and now is less than 7200 seconds (60 seconds * 60 minutes * two hours), $row3['MissionTime'] is either in the past or it's within the next two hours.
Alternatively:
if(strtotime($row3['MissionTime']) <= strtotime('+2 hours')) {
echo $row3['MissionTime']."<br>";
}
Basically the same, but perhaps more readable if you're not planning to use $cT for anything else. This simply checks if $row3['MissionTime'] is earlier than whatever time it will be in +2 hours.

Go over 24 hours in a date?

I am working on project (a Google Transit feed) where I am required to provide the times for each stop on a bus route in the following common format: 21:00:00 and so forth.
Problem is, if times continue past midnight for a given trip, they require it to continue the hour counting accordingly. They explain quite specifically that 02:00:00 should become 26:00:00 and 03:45:00 should become 27:45:00 etc.
I am baffled on how to display such with any of the date() or strtotime() functions.
The only thing I can think of in my particular situation would be to function match and replace any strings in my output between 00:00:00 and 04:00:00, as that would clearly mean (again, for me only) that these are trips originating before midnight, but I don't feel that's the correct way.
Well seeing as it's only displaying on the page, you can
firstly get your date from where ever
Let's say $date = 00:00:00
$exploded_date = explode(":", $date);
This takes $date and puts it into an array so
$exploded_date[0] is hh
$exploded_date[1] is mm
$exploded_date[2] is ss
Then what you can do is use ltrim() to remove the leading 0 from 00 to 04 $exploded_date[0] - This makes it comparable in the if statement I'll do after
if($exploded_date[0] <= 4) {
$exploded_date[0] = ltrim($exploded_date[0], "0");
$exploded_date[0] = $exploded_date[0]+24;
}
Then you can implode the array back together into one string
$date = implode(":", $exploded_date);
// if the hour is 00 to 04 it will come out as 24 to 28
// e.g. 24:35:30
echo $date;
Despite giving you an answer. It's a silly thing to be doing, but it's not your choice so here you go :)
The way you display something doesn't necesarily has to be the same way you store something.
I don't know how you calculate the times, but assuming you have a start date and time, and some interval, you could calculate the end time as follows:
date_default_timezone_set('Europe/London');
$start_datetime = new DateTime('2014-11-11T21:00:00');
$next_stop = new DateTime('2014-11-12T02:00:00');
echo $start_datetime->format('Y-m-d H:i'); // 2014-11-11 21:00
echo $next_stop->format('Y-m-d H:i'); // 2014-11-12 02:00
$interval = $start_datetime->diff($next_stop);
// display next stop: 2014-11-11 26:00
echo ($start_datetime->format('Y') + $interval->y) .'-'
. ($start_datetime->format('m') + $interval->m) .'-'
. ($start_datetime->format('d') + $interval->d) .' '
. ($start_datetime->format('H') + $interval->h) .':'
. ($start_datetime->format('i') + $interval->i);
What I'm doing: create the start date (& time) and the datetime of the next stop. With the DateTime::diff() function I'm calculating the difference, and then, only for display (!) I add up each year, month, day, hour and minute to the datetime year, month etc. of the next stop.
This way you can still store your dates and times in a way every human being and computer system will understand (because let's be honest; to represent a time as 27:45 PM is quite ridiculous...)
I don't know if you only want the hours to be added up and roll over the 24 hour, or also days in a month etc. It's up to you how you handle these cases. Good luck!

PHP scheduled email alerts using preselected timezone

I've been searching alot and I can't seem to find a solution.
I have a PHP web page where I can schedule email alerts at specific times. I select the date and time of when the alert is to be sent. This is stored in MySQL table in UNIX format. I have a job that executes every 15 minutes and sends the emails if the date+time is in the past - this all works perfectly except I need to extend it for my USA colleagues. I am based in Ireland so I will need to manage the different timezones all across the US. I am planning on adding a select list of timezones that the user will have to select once they register...at least thats a start. Managing timezones is fine because I reckon all I need to do is minus the time different from the server time and then save the date time in unix format. DST is a different issue tho - does anyone have any ideas on how to overcome this?
I have read that using UTC as the base time but even if that is the case wont I still have the same issue?
Thanks a mil!
Your times are already in UNIX timestamp format so all you need is to calculate time difference (offset) of user. For example Ireland is in UTC/UTC+1 timezone. So all you need is to do the math like james_t mentioned in his comment. If you need user from Ireland to get an email in 9:00pm UTC+1 you have to send it in 8:00pm UTC. So what's an idea?
Allow users to select timezone which means they select offset from UTC. Keep it somewhere in database (your users table or some other table, doesn't matter).
Convert offset in seconds:
$delta_time = -1 * $offset * 3600
Then calculate your trigger-time:
$trigger_time = time() + $delta_time;
Now you have time when your email sender can fire in right moment depending on user's timezone settings.
For example:
$offset = 1; // summer in Ireland
$server_time = time(); // at the moment 1350509127
$delta_time = -1 * $offset * 3600; // -3600
$trigger_time = $server_time + $delta_time; // 1350505527
All you need is to compare $trigger_time with UNIX timestamp from your database and decide to send an email (or not).
Ofc, it's not bad idea to use PHP timezones instead of pure +/- offset and stay updated when DST changes apply on certain locations.
Make some test, this is not that hard.
This is just a general idea, not complete working solution.
Update:
To calculate time-difference in seconds between any two timezones you can use something like this:
function delta_offset()
function delta_offset($server_timezone, $user_timezone) {
$dt = new DateTime('now', new DateTimeZone($server_timezone));
$offset_server = $dt->getOffset();
$dt->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone($user_timezone));
$offset_user = $dt->getOffset();
return $offset_user - $offset_server;
}
To get an offset in seconds:
$server_tz = "Europe/London";
$user_tz = "America/New_York";
$offset = delta_offset($server_tz, $user_tz); // offset in sec.
Create some output:
$dt = new DateTime('now', new DateTimeZone('UTC'));
echo "<pre>UTC date/time: " . $dt->format('l, F jS, <b>H:i:s</b>') . "\n";
$dt = new DateTime('now', new DateTimeZone($server_tz));
echo "London date/time: " . $dt->format('l, F jS, <b>H:i:s</b>') . "\n";
$dt = new DateTime('now', new DateTimeZone($user_tz));
echo "New York date/time: " . $dt->format('l, F jS, <b>H:i:s</b>') . "\n\n";
echo "Time difference between London (UK) and New York (USA) is: <b>$offset_h</b> ($offset s)</pre>";
Output in browser (in moment of writing this post):
UTC date/time: Wednesday, October 17th, 22:32:27
London date/time: Wednesday, October 17th, 23:32:27
New York date/time: Wednesday, October 17th, 18:32:27
Time difference between London (UK) and New York (USA) is: -5:00 (-18000 s)
In this case offset is -5 hours (-18000 seconds) but it automatically changes if DST rules change for any of timezones given as function-arguments.
Delta-offset provides information how much earlier or later you have to send an email to user in different timezone and all you need now is to do simple +/- delta-offset with your email-sender's scheduler.
Hope this may help you to get right solution for your problem.
Update #2 - Example (theory)
Imagine this situation.
Your current server-time is X and its 7:00pm at the moment in Ireland. I live in Serbia and we have same DST rules but I’m one hour after (UTC+1/UTC+2). Difference between your and my time is +3600 seconds (1 hour).
Now you have to send an email to me in 10:00pm (it’s 9:00pm in Ireland).
Current time is X.
Delta-offset is -1 * +3600 = -3600 (delta-offset multiplied with -1).
Sending time on your location in 10:00 pm is X + 10800 (3 hours later).
Sending time on my location in 10 pm is X + 10800 + delta-offset = X + 7200 (2 hours later).
Formula to check if actual time is equal or greater than trigger-time (sending time) is:
current_timestamp >= trigger_timestamp + delta_offset
where delta-offset from delta_offset() function must be multiplied with -1 to use in formula.
Now you can send email when you want and be sure it will be sent using user's local time (ofc, if user timezone settings are correct).
Note: Difference from this example (Serbia - Ireland = +1 hour) is different during DST changes which means that 1 hour every year we're in same timezone (0 delta-offset), and one hour we have +2 hours delta-offset. This is possible because DST changes are applied 1 hour earlier in Serbia so when our time is changed +1 you have to wait 60 minutes before same change applies to Ireland-time *then we're +2) and same thing when we bring back clock to normal time (0 difference).

Timestamp Troubles

I have a snippet of code where I want to show the date and time for every time a client uses a discount card. Clients can not have more than two entries per card. However, when I try to display the two entries with the appropriate formatting only the older timestamp formats properly. Code below:
Last Used:
<?php
$timestamp = mysql_to_unix($row->trans_date); //MySql Time stamp 2011-05-31 12:49:59
date_default_timezone_set('America/Chicago'); //Push timestamp ahead 2 hours
$lastuse = date('F j, Y # g:i A', $timestamp); //format date
echo $lastuse;
?>
<?php endforeach; ?>
I have two timestamps coming in 1306871399 and 1306864204. The first stamp successfully processes as May 31, 2011 # 2:49 PM, but the second comes out May 31, 2011 # 12:50 PM.
I am not understanding why only one of the timestamps are being processed. Your feedback is appreciated.
1306871399
- 1306864204
------------
= 7195
7195 seconds = 1hr 59 minutes 55 seconds
May 31/2:49pm -> May31/12:50pm is about 1hr 59 minutes apart
So what's the problem?
You should format your timestamp values for user-display at the MySQL level, instead of using PHP to format them. That way, you don't have to worry about what timezone your PHP server is on (your reference to the Chicago timezone). Try using the MySQL Date Format function to return a MySQL formatted timestamp as a string you can display...
My thinking is that the older timestamp is not being passed through the timezone push, as it is 2 hours behind. Make sure your code is running both values through it.
If that's not it.. has your hosting provider changed recently? Server-time vs. Local-time could be an issue?

how to subtract two dates and times to get difference

i have to sent an email when a user register email contain a link that is become invalid after six hours
what i m doing when email is sent i update the db with field emailSentDate of type "datetime"
now i got the curent date and time and has made to the same formate as it is in db now i want to find that both these dates and time have differenc of 6 hours or not so that i can make link invalid but i donot know how to do this
my code is look like this i m using hardcoded value for db just for example
$current_date_time=date("Y-m-d h:i:s");
$current=explode(" ",$current_date_time);
$current_date=$current[0];
$current_time=$current[1];
$db_date_time="2010-07-30 13:11:50";
$db=explode(" ",$db_date_time);
$db_date=$db[0];
$db_time=$db[1];
i do not know how to proceed plz help
<?php
//$now = new DateTime(); // current date/time
$now = new DateTime("2010-07-28 01:11:50");
$ref = new DateTime("2010-07-30 05:56:40");
$diff = $now->diff($ref);
printf('%d days, %d hours, %d minutes', $diff->d, $diff->h, $diff->i);
prints 2 days, 4 hours, 44 minutes
see http://docs.php.net/datetime.diff
edit: But you could also shift the problem more to the database side, e.g. by storing the expiration date/time in the table and then do a query like
... WHERE key='7gedufgweufg' AND expires<Now()
Many rdbms have reasonable/good support for date/time arithmetic.
What you can do is convert both of your dates to Unix epoch times, that is, the equivalent number of seconds since midnight on the 31st of December 1969. From that you can easily deduce the amount of time elapsed between the two dates. To do this you can either use mktime() or strtotime()
All the best.
$hoursDiff = ( time() - strtotime("2010-07-30 13:11:50") )/(60 * 60);
I'd rather work with a timestamp: Save the value which is returned by "time()" as "savedTime" to your database (that's a timestamp in seconds). Subtract that number from "time()" when you check for your six hours.
if ((time() - savedTime) > 6 * 3600)
// more than 6h ago
or
"SELECT FROM table WHERE savedTime < " . (time() - 6 * 3600)
This might be the solution to your problem -> How to calculate the difference between two dates using PHP?

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