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.
Related
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.
I have a php file which pulls some data from external API's, and I want to schedule it to do so every few hours (or every few days). Some googleing led me to "scheduled tasks", but it seems I need to be running my own server to do it?
So far, all the PHP and MySQL I've done have been very simple form-filling, so I'm a little lost. Do I need to turn a computer into a server to do this, or should I look into hosts that allow you to run scripts? I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for.
Side-question: how would I be able to prevent someone else from running the PHP script (therefor making tons of API calls)?
How are you running the script now? Windows or Linux? Linux is a no-brainer with cron: on a PHP-enabled server simply drop the PHP script somewhere, edit the crontab and away you go!
Ex. for every 2 hours
0 */2 * * * /usr/local/bin/php /path/to/script.php
Edit Re: Mac
launchd is apparently the preferred method to run scheduled tasks but I understand that OS X has cron capabilities as well being a UNIX derivative.
If you have a reasonably busy web server, you can simply check every time how long it has been since the last time you ran the script. If more than two hours, run it.
Just make sure to update the time and run the script atomically so you don't launch several copies of the script. You can do this with a file that contains the last time the script was run that you lock while you check and update it.
cronjobs are made for it... You can check the Cron Jobs in cpanel..
I am assuming your website is launched in Linu environment
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/how-do-i-add-jobs-to-cron-under-linux-or-unix-oses/
http://man.cx/cron
You can find much more exlaination about the Background Process
http://www.fijiwebdesign.com/blog/create-a-background-process-on-the-server-with-php.html
is there a way to add a php script (file) in cron for running this script every ten minutes or at a scheduled time?
cause i want the user to be able to schedule when to send newsletter to a lot of emails he choses.
so i have to create a cron job from php to run a php file on that scheduled time.
is this possible if you have a shared web hosting environment (not vps)
If you script filename is news.php and in /home/user/news.php
crontab line seems like to be:
* * * * * php /home/user/news.php
If you want dont run this in every minute.
You can edit * with from left (m, h, dom, mon, dow)
But you cant do this if only you have same web hosting,
you must have access to shell or other way to configure
your crobtab file (maybe from your provider access panel)
But you can run crontab job on other server to run your news.php by the apache over http protocol. In this option your crontab job on remote server must run your script by the web. Eg. wget is a good option for it:
* * * * * wget http://www.yourdomain.com/dir/news.php
My advice is don't allow a PHP script invoked by Apache to alter the cron. That's got disaster written all over it. Normally cron is setup to require root permision. That can be changed but the point is that if your site does get hacked, giving an attacker the ability to modify your cron could be really really bad.
More to the point, it's not necesary. All you do is pick some granularity, say every minute or 5 minutes or 10 minutes. You say to the users that they can schedule it down to that level. Give them some options from every month to every 5 minutes. Whatever they choose, write it to the database.
Then run a different PHP script every 1, 5 or 10 minutes (whatever the minimum granularity is) and have it look at the database to see if there is anything to run, do or send out.
Yup It is possible but on shared hosting it will affect your as well as other websites on that host.
So if ur file is not called often by cron then it is ok to put cron on shared host, but if You have to call it often then it is not advisable, u can also be thrown out by your provider since nobody wants there site to under-perform because of other website.
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 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
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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.