AJAX Call Every 5 seconds to PHP Script - php

Question

I'm tapping into the Twitter firehose to store some tweets based on some set filters for analytic purposes.
I have written a PHP script that opens a connection to the Twitter stream, and keeps it open while(!eof)...so this basically stays open indefinitely.
However, I have it set so that it stops after 5 seconds. I want to use AJAX to call this script ever 5.5 seconds (offset to make sure they don't collide), and then re-loop on success etc...
The problem is that my function doesn't seem to be receiving a "success" signal. What's going on here?
Here are the relevant portions of my code:
$(function() {
makeRequest();
});
function makeRequest(){
console.log("Getting tweets...");
$.ajax({
url: "./php/store_tweets.php",
success: function(){
console.log("Success!");
makeRequest();
}
});
}
The Script:
<?php
$start = time();
$expAddress = "HOSTNAME";
$expUser = "USERNAME";
$expPwd = "PASSWORD";
$database = "DBNAME";
$opts = array(
'http' => array(
'method' => "POST",
'content' => 'keywords,go,here'
)
);
// Open connection to stream
$db = mysql_connect($expAddress, $expUser, $expPwd);
mysql_select_db($database, $db);
$context = stream_context_create($opts);
$instream = fopen('https://USERNAME:PASSWORD#stream.twitter.com/1/statuses/filter.json', 'r', false, $context);
while (!feof($instream)) {
if (time() - $start > 5) { // break after 5 seconds
break;
}
if (!($line = stream_get_line($instream, 100000, "\n"))) {
continue;
} else {
$tweet = json_decode($line);
// Clean before storing
// LOTS OF VARIABLES FOR BELOW...REMOVED FOR READABILITY
// Send to database
$ok = mysql_query("INSERT INTO tweets
(created_at, from_user, from_user_id, latitude, longitude, tweet_id, language_code,
place_name, profile_img_url, source, text, retweet_count, followers_count,
friends_count, listed_count, favorites_count)
VALUES
(NOW(), '$from_user', '$from_user_id', '$latitude', '$longitude', '$tweet_id', '$language_code',
'$place_name', '$profile_img_url', '$source', '$text', '$retweet_count', '$followers_count',
'$friends_count', '$listed_count', '$favorites_count')");
if (!$ok) {
echo "Mysql Error: " . mysql_error();
}
flush();
}
}
?>

Answer 1

You should try javascript function setInterval.
<script type="text/javascript">
var myVar=setInterval(function(){makeRequest()},5000);
function myStopFunction()
{
clearInterval(myVar);
}
</script>