i need to update/ empty my databases on a specific date. i've made it manually to be done by the admin. but if due to some reason, admin fails, then database won't be updated.
for doing this automatically, i've read about cron jobs or windows task scheduling.
but my project is under development now and i can't upload it to any site so that i can ping the specific page from other sites. my project is in USB, and i need to take to work, home, to friends or to wherever i can have access to a system. so creating a cron job or task schedule will not help as OS/ system is not constant.
how can i create a portable task scheduling?
or is there any other process to run the specific script and re-run after intervals whenever the server starts running?
i'm using xampp 1.8.2 in a USB under windows.
Related
We have a website running on multiple Azure instances – typically between 2 and 5.
There is a PHP script I would like to schedule to run every few minutes on each instance. (It just makes a local copy of data from a system that couldn't handle the load from all our users hitting it in real-time.)
If it were just one instance, that would be easy - I'd use Azure Scheduler to call www.example.com/my-scheduled-task.php every 5 minutes.
But the script needs to run on each instance, so that every instance has a reasonably up-to-date copy of the data. How would you achieve this? I can't work out if it's something in Azure Scheduler, or if I should be looking at some sort of startup script?
You can use a continuous webjob for that.
Just tweak your php script to have a loop and add a sleep of a few minutes between runs of your code.
The continuous webjob will run on all of your instances and even if somethings fails it will be brought back up.
Per my experience, a PHP webjob running on your each webapp instance is the good solution as #AmitApple said. However, I think you can try to use a scheduled webjob with a CRON expression for ensuring a start time, not a continuous one with a sleep time. And please make sure the script can be completed in the interval time.
You can refer to the section Create a scheduled WebJob using a CRON expression of the doc Run Background tasks with WebJobs to know how to get start.
Please see the note of the section Create a continuously running WebJob https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/web-sites-create-web-jobs/#CreateContinuous.
Note:
If your web app runs on more than one instance, a continuously running WebJob will run on all of your instances. On-demand and scheduled WebJobs run on a single instance selected for load balancing by Microsoft Azure.
For Continuous WebJobs to run reliably and on all instances, enable the Always On* configuration setting for the web app otherwise they can stop running when the SCM host site has been idle for too long.
I know we have cron jobs in PHP. but I have a project in development phase and we won't have cPanel access.
We have a PHP + MSSQL application that needs to check the database periodically every 1 minute and collect the data and send a mail to a store admininstrator.
How can we do this?
You can have a alternative of cron jobs solution by implement you function in a file (eg: /very/secret.php if your jobs need to be secure, make sure the function can be call only when it get the right parameter eg: /very/secret.php?key=long-random).
Then use some free cron job server on the web like: https://www.easycron.com/ or https://www.setcronjob.com/ (just do a web search for "free online cron jobs"). You give them your URL and some configuration and then your jobs will be executed by them at a specific time of day.
I understand that you need to run a script to check the database periodically every one minute and collect the data and send a mail to store admin. Also I understand that you have a script and you need to run that script every one minute.
It can be done using "cron job", if you are using Linux server. Or if you are using Windows, there is a way to schedule the task (to run that script every min).
Note: it is nothing to with cPanel. Actually, the cPanel provides a user friendly GUI to schedule the cron job.
But if you are not using panel, you can do it manually.
If you are using Linux, here you can see, how to add the cron job - http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/how-do-i-add-jobs-to-cron-under-linux-or-unix-oses/
If you are using Windows, here you can see, how to add the cron job - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/schedule-task#1TC=windows-7
In Linux, we use crontab to run automations. So far i know only that system cron can make automated tasks. Now i found out Drupal has the Crons also. But, the Drupal whatever is a bundle of script itself only.
I so far realized there is no way to make a PHP script to be up & running itself, without System Cron. And also it should not be.
So how does Drupal Cron get activated unless their tasks are registered in Linux/System crontab ?
Drupal cron is more of a psuedo-cron. It doesn't utilize the system crontab, or anything like that. Rather, it runs during the bootstrap process.
If your cron is set to 3 hours, for example, the bootstrap process (everytime you visit a Drupal page) will check to see if it's time to run the cron. If the time is >= 3 hours, the cron tasks will run.
This means that the cron runs are dependent on the visits your site gets. If no one is visiting your site, then the cron will not run.
I have a project, i need to do this
a desktop application sends a txt file with a number to the web server every 5 seconds
the web server opens that file and saves the number in a database
the thing is that i need it to work 24/7 , even if the user hasn't logged in.
the desktop application already works, what can I do?
You should use a cron to do this. Here's an article explaining how to set them up in linux:
http://kevin.vanzonneveld.net/techblog/article/schedule_tasks_on_linux_using_crontab/
In case you're running this on windows:
What is the Windows version of cron?
Mac is similar to linux:
http://benr75.com/pages/using_crontab_mac_os_x_unix_linux
use Unix Chron to plan a php job that fits your needs
What you're trying to do is not actually a web server function, per se, (there isn't a request to serve) you just want to run a PHP script on a pre-determined schedule. To do that, you should run a scheduled job (cron on non-windows, Scheduled Task on Windows).
We use Windows, so here's how you set up a scheduled task for a php script to run when you need it to:
On the web server, from Control Panel, create a new Schedule Task
Set the Run value to wherever PHP is installed and the script you want to run:
"C:\Program Files\Php5\php.exe" C:\webserver\scripts\myphpfile.php
Set the Start in to wherever your php file is:
C:\webserver\scripts\
Set up the rest of the Schedule Task options to your needs.
I am writing a component for Joomla and there is a specific task that requires an update to some stats every so often. I would like to setup a cron job to do this. The only problem is that requires the user to go and setup the cron to run the php update stats script.
On installation of the component how can I automatically setup a cron job for the user? Is this possible?
I've seen this implemented in the Akeeba backup pro component for Joomla, so I was hoping that I would be able to do the same thing.
Thanks
In theory you can create a crontab file and call it from PHP
<?php
exec("crontab $path_to_cron_file");
in practice it depends on wether the server (if you're on a shared hosting) allows you to do that.
All you need to do is write a line to the crontab file, generally stored in /var/spool/cron/crontabs/username. The cron daemon will see that the file modification time has changed and reload it automatically when it wakes up to do its checks
Another option (less desirable from a server load perspective but easier for users) would be to create a plugin that is run each time a visitor visits the site. It could check whether the process has been run in a specified time and then run it if it needs to be run.
iJoobi.com has another solution where they have set up a server to run cron tasks, which would then ping the specific URL on the website to kick off the process. (http://www.ijoobi.com/Help/jNews/jNews-Cron-Task.html)