Is there a way to run a PHP file automatically every hour?
Via SQL or some other way.
I'm currently working on a file who's job is to bring information from a table every hour.
This file needs to execute every hour.
Is there any way to do this?
Neither PHP nor MySQL has this ability.
This function is normally available either by your operating system or external tool.
Windows has a job scheduler, or Unix and variants has crontab, where you can specify a command that must be run on a periodic basis.
it is not a build-in facility. however it can be done by some external tools or using some other php code written for it and loaded on the machine
If you have cron on your host, you can use it. Cron runs php script or any other script every time you want to. It's automated so you just put time details in to it and let it do it's magics itself.
First, put your script that you want to run every hour into file. Then search cron, or crontab from your cpanel(or what are you using). Then set time details(if you have those inputs on your cpanel). Then, write to command input: php /your/full/path/here/. If you don't have GUI for setting crons(cron times), you can use this command:
0 * * * * php /your/full/path/here/
Cronjobs has been mentioned in the questions above me. And you should try to find a solution with cronjobs.
But if you can't, you can use the php time_sleep_until function.
The doc is here: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.time-sleep-until.php
You input a timestamp in the first parameter, and the php script will sleep until given time.
And then you just while it forever. Not a good solution, but it works.
Remember to ignore user abort and set timeout to infinite.
Related
I have some files on my server, how to open them programatically once a day?
Let them be
http://site.com/scripts/video.php
http://site.com/scripts/music.php
Without my hands, just like sheduling (automatically).
Even if I sleep and server is working, they should open on given time.
And additionally, how to open them once a 10 seconds (for tests)?
Thanks.
The Solution is very clear when you are using a Linux server;CRON JOBS.
One can easily run a cron job by configuring it through the terminal.I saw everyone has provided the Solution,but my answer will be for the people who are novice to Linux servers and don't know much about Cron Jobs.Go to Terminal and type the below commands..
root>which php
The above line will give you the path to where PHP is in your linux systems
Now,
root>crontab e
The above line will open the Cron file in edit mode.
Enter the number of times you want to run a particular php file and what time of the day,month,week,etc.
I am providing the syntex for running a particular file every 15 mins.
So here you go,
(write this in the cron file in edit mode)
*/15 * * * * path/to/your/php path/to/the/file/you/want/to/run
Now,path/to/your/php has to be replaced by the path what you got when you typed
root>which php
And you are done just save the file and close it.You will see a messege on you terminal that a new CronJob is installed.
That's it.
If you're on a Linux/Unix host using a cron job is generally the best approach, as you can simply call the command line version of PHP as a part of the cron job. (You may need to tweak your script if it relies on $_SERVER variables, that said.)
Administration middleware (such as Plesk) often offer the ability to add cron tasks as well, although you many need to check the user/group rights that such tasks are executed with.
Finally, if you use a cron task you can simply enter the required command via the command line during the testing phase. (i.e.: Rather than force a 10 second update (which would be tricky unless you had cron execute a shell script) you could execute the script as required.)
It's not possible with pure PHP. You'll need a cron job for this - ask your provider or administrator whether they are available.
Cron has a resolution of 1 minute, though: Calling a script once every 10 seconds would have to be done e.g. using a PHP script that gets called every minute, and makes six requests every ten seconds.
Running them once a day requires a seperate program running them.
For linux servers the usual choice is a Cron Job, for Windows the Task Sheduler works fine, too.
Is it possible to automaticly download xml files from one server to another server on a daily basis with PHP?
The goal is to create a webapplication in CakePHP which makes use of an xml report that comes from a online accountingserver.
So it can be done using a cronjob? But is cron supported with PHP?
Where can i configure that cronjob?
What kind of code should i write to get the file from the accountingserver in the first place?
Yes, you can create a PHP script that will download the data from the second server and then call it from using a cron job. Cron jobs allow you to run code at specific times. More info on that here.
It would probably look something like this:
0 0 * * * php path/to/file.php
This basically tells it to run file.php at minute 0, hour 0, every day, every month.
Surely you can.
You write a PHP program that does this transfer once, when called. Then we run that program automatically every day at a fixed time by setting up a cron job.
I have a PHP script that needs to be run at certain times every weekday. Is cron or Windows task scheduler the only way to do this?
Is there a way to set this up from within another PHP script?
Depends how exact the timing needs to be. A technique I've seen used (dubbed "poor man's cron") is to have a frequently accessed script (a site's home page, for example) fire off a task on the first page load after a certain time (kept track of in the database).
If you need any sort of guaranteed accuracy, though, cron or a Windows scheduled task is really the best option. If your host doesn't support them, it's time to get a better one.
Apart from cron or Scheduled Tasks, you can have your PHP script to always run it. The process should sleep (within a loop) until the time has reached. Then, the process could execute the remaining functions/methods. Or, you can set up another script (which will act as a daemon) to check for the time and execute the other script.
Well since the web is a pull mechanism you have to have some sort of action that will trigger a PHP script to execute. cron is an option on *nix and task scheduler on windows. You could also write your own service that has a timer but only if needed, this is common on windows services for updaters, jobs etc.
One way you could do it is in the cron task just call a php script for each action needed. Or one php script that executes other tasks. The problem with web based tasks though such as PHP is timeouts. Make sure your tasks are under 60-90 seconds. If not you might look at using python , perl or ruby or even bash scripts to do the work rather than the PHP script.
cron seems like the best option for you though. You will have to call your script with wget. There are examples here: http://www.thesitewizard.com/general/set-cron-job.shtml
For instance this runs the script everyday at 11:
30 11 * * * /usr/bin/wget http://www.example.com/cron.php
Cron, of course, is by far the best way to schedule anything on *nix.
If this is in a remote server you do not have cron access to, you can setup cron/windows scheduler on your computer, to open a web browser to the page that contains the script you wish to run
You probably want to use cron (or windows scheduled tasks).
If you really wanted, you could set up another php script to run continuously with an infinite loop (with a sleep command inside the loop, say for 30 seconds or so) and then when you reach your desired day/time execute the other script via a shell command call. While possible, I can't think if a single good reason to use this method rather than cron/scheduled tasks
You can write a long running script that runs your main script in predefined times but it will be very unnecessary, error prone, and it will basically be a "cron rewrite in phph".
Using the real cron itself will be easier and a more robust solution. If you are packaging an application, you can put a file in /etc/cron.d which contains a single cron line running your application.
You'll need to use a cron job (under Linux/Unix) or a scheduled task under Windows. You could have another script running on a continuous basis which checks the time and executes a script at a specified interval, but using the OS-supplied mechanism is easier to manage and resilient to restarts, etc.
The Uniform Server project has some good suggestions on mimicking cron in environments where cron is unacceptable. Still though, if cron is at all an option, use it.
I have a php script that reads one file through http(the file is on other domain). I would like to read this file only once or twice a day, instead of connecting to it every time the website is refreshed.
Is there any other way than doing it with cron?
I dont want to use cron cause I prefer to setup this behaviour in the script itself .. so it is flexible, so I can use it anywhere without setting up cron every time.
thanks
I've done this kind of thing in the past when I didn't have access to cron:
$lastRunLog = '/path/to/lastrun.log';
if (file_exists($lastRunLog)) {
$lastRun = file_get_contents($lastRunLog);
if (time() - $lastRun >= 86400) {
//its been more than a day so run our external file
$cron = file_get_contents('http://example.com/external/file.php');
//update lastrun.log with current time
file_put_contents($lastRunLog, time());
}
}
If you can't or don't want to use use cron and it's ok to update it only when the page is accessed. You could cache the result of the HTTP request and only update it on a page load it if the cache is older than a day or whatever interval you choose.
You can also use Web Based Cron if you want to hit a site on a timed interval.
You could even use a database table - really simple in structure, id, date, script url, and whatever you need - and add a row every time you run the script.
Then, before run the script simply check the numbers of row for each day you have.
You can use a Cronjob. You can then run the php script by the command line.
php /someplace/somefile.php
The Cronjob would be the following if you update every day.
0 0 * 0 0 php /someplace/somefile.php
Since you explicitly state that you don't want to use cron, the only other way to do this (without something analogous to cron) is to set up your script as a daemon. However, unless you really need the flexibility that daemons provide, cron is much easier and simpler.
Here's one daemon walk-through.
If you're using a Linux distro with systemd:
I had a need for scheduling yearly based jobs, independent of the application (in case the system rebooted or anything like that), and I was given the suggestion to use systemd Timers. The Arch Wiki Page on it gives some examples.
If you are on a *nix environment you can use cron jobs
What's wrong with cron?
You have a couple choices with cron - your php can be invoked by the command line PHP interpreter, or you could use wget or fetch or the equivalent to invoke your PHP on the server.
In general, PHP run from within the context of the web server has a time limit on how long it can execute, so in general you can't set up "background" PHP threads to do stuff "later".
I need to reset a MySQL Field value automatically at midnight. It is a specific column in a specific row in a table. I know how to do this in PHP but I do not know how to execute the PHP Script at midnight without someone having to do it themselves. Do you have any viable solutions?
Edit:--------------------
Preferably without using Cron Jobs.
If you are running on linux you would use a cronjob
On most distros there is a command called crontab that schedules tasks for you and a specific format you need:
0 0 * * * php /path/to/file.php
EDIT:
Wrote this before you edited yours :p I'm not sure there is any other way. Do you have a specific reason not to use a cronjob?
You may not even need to specify the php part if the php file is marked as executable i.e
0 0 * * * /path/to/file.php
Just do "chmod +x /path/to/file.php" form the linux command line
There are web based cron services too. Basically you set up an account and then they visit an URL of your choosing at a regular interval. On your server you set up a page that does what you need to get done. Preferably give it a unlikely-to-find-name like myjob789273634ahhh8s2nhw8sghusgf874wfu.php. You get the idea. (Remember that PHP-scripts timeout after like 30secs.)
Here's a google search:
**oops I'm new so I can't post URL apparently. Just search for "web based cron".
Good luck
/0
You could write a job scheduler into your program that runs jobs in a cron-like way. It would require a user to interact with the system to trigger, but it might be good enough depending on your needs. This is much more complicated than just running a cronjob, and does not ensure prefect timing (since it wont run until a user hits a page).
You'd probably need to add a table into you database that would list the job, the time you want them done, and a locking flag to avoid concurrent attempts to run the job. Each time your script runs, you'd check this table for overdue jobs and run them as needed.
Asking how to reliably set off a script at the same time every night without cron (or a scheduled task, on Windows) is like asking how to make a dynamic website without a server-side language.
If your app absolutely relies on a script running exactly at midnight, cron is a requirement. If your users have a hosting company that (stupidly) does not permit cron, they're going to be out of luck.