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.
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've got a database that processes an order - the Order is inserted at the beginning of the process but if the process is not complete (they left the page etc) the "confirmed" field is not filled in, this allows the admin to know which orders were complete or not.
At the moment I don't have the luxury of adjusting the way the website manages the data, I can however add some sort of weekly cleanout of these database fields where "confirmed" = 0.
How would I go about doing this automatically? Is there a way to run a query like this on a weekly, monthly, yearly basis?
Edit:
What if I added that the website is stored on a restricted, shared server where I have no access to the box itself?
You can use CRON to perform this job. But if you need to clean your database from incompleted orders only to show completed ones for humans and you don't export them to other places (e.g. manager visits backend once per day and looks for completed orders manually), i suggest you not to hire CRON for this. You can add few lines of code which will remove old entries from database each time backend was accessed.
DELETE queries are executed really fast so there will be no problems with perfomance. Real data deletion will be performed only by request. Also you don't need to have CRON (some cheap hosting providers do not give access to this service).
I usually create a PHP page that does the action and then schedule that to run using cURL and a CRON job.
If it's a Unix-like box, I'd put the cleanup in a PHP CLI script (that is, a PHP script that runs from the command line rather than in a web server module) and invoke that from a cronjob. Cron is a daemon for this exact purpose: Run things at predefined intervals. Cronjobs are defined in a crontab file, usually in /etc/crontab (for root) and ~/.crontab (for regular users); many distributions offer tools to safely edit this file.
Try man cron and man crontab for details. Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron
setup a cron job and do a wget to run the script you want to automate. look at the link for more info http://www.phpmyvisites.us/faq/crontab-launch-automatically-statistics-archiving-process-every-62.html.
Write a short PHP script that updates/deletes the mysql records,
Then, if you have access to the linux/unix box, type crontab -e, you will then be prompted with the option to choose which editor you would like to view the current cronjobs, select the default and add this line:
0 0 * * 0 /usr/bin/php /path/to/script.php
Please check if /usr/bin/php exists before you set this up (you will need to install php-cli incase it does not exist, or the file might be also at /usr/sbin/php).
This cronjob will run once a week, if you want to change the frequency, use the manpages to learn how.
Also, are you sure you would like to run this script automatically? from what I understand you will need someone to first see the incomplete orders and only then to clean them up. if you run this cronjob you might be in a situation where someone did not complete his order but any evidence to that was deleted.
Hope this helps,
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.
I am using MYSQL as my database and PHP as my programming language.I wanted to run a cron job which would run until the current system date matches the "deadline(date)" column in my database table called "PROJECT".Once the dates are same an update query has to run which would change the status(field of project table) from "open" to "close".
I am not really sure if cron jobs are the best way or I could use triggers or may be something else.Also I am using Apache as my web server and my OS is windows vista.
Also which is the best way to do it? PHP scheduler or cron jobs or any other method? can anybody enlighten me?
I think your concept needs to change.
PHP cannot schedule a job, neither can MySQL. Triggers in MySQL execute when a mysql query occurs, not at a specific time. Neither
This limitation usually isn't a problem in web development. The reason is because your PHP application should control all data going in and out. Usually, this means just the HTML that displays that data, or other formats to users, or other programs.
In your case you can think about it this way. The deadline is a set date. You can treat it as data, and save it to your database. When the deadline occurs is not important, it is that the data you have sent in your database is viewed correctly.
When a request is made to your application, check if the date of the deadline is in the past, if it is, then display that the project is closed - or update that the project is closed, just before display.
There really is no reason to update data independantly of your PHP application.
Usually, the only things you want to schedule are jobs that would affect your application in terms of load, or that need to be done only once, or where concurrency or time is an issue.
In your case none of those apply.
PS: I haven't tried PHPscheduler but I can guess it isn't a true scheduler. Cron is a deamon that sleeps until a given task is due in its queue, executes the task, then sleeps till the next one is due (at least thats what it does in the current algorithm). PHP cannot do that without the sockets and fork extensions, as special setup. So PHPscheduler is most likely just checking if a date for a task has expired, on each load of a webpage (whenever PHP executes a page). This is no different then you just checking if the date on the project has expired, without the overhead of PHPScheduler.
I would always go for a cron job for anything scheduling related.
The big bonus point is that you can echo info out as well and it get's emailed to you.
You'll find once you start using cronjobs, it's hard to stop.
cron does not exist, per se, in vista, but what does exist is the standard windows scheduling manager which you can run with a command line like "php -q -f myfile.php" which will execute the php file at the given time.
you can also use a port of the cron program, there are many out there.
if it is not critical to the second, any windows scheduling application will do, just be sure to have you PHP bin path in your PATH variable for simplicity.
For Windows CRON jobs I cannot recommend PyCron enough.
While CRON and Windows Scheduled Tasks are the tried and true ways of scheduling jobs/tasks to run on a regular basis, there are use cases where having a different scheduled task in CRON/Windows can become tedious. Namely when you want to let users schedule things to run, or for instances where you prefer simplicity/maintainability/portability/etc or all of the above.
In cases where I prefer to not use CRON/Windows for scheduled tasks, I build into the application a task scheduling system. This still requires 1 CRON job or Windows Task to be scheduled. The idea is to store Job details in the database (job name, job properties, last run time, run interval, anything else that is important for your implementation). You then schedule a "Master" job in CRON or Windows which handles running all of your other jobs for you. You'll need this master job to run at least as often as your shortest interval; if you want to be able to schedule jobs that run every minute the master job needs to run every minute.
You can then launch each scheduled job in the background from PHP with minimal effort (if you want). In memory constrained systems you can monitor memory usage or keep track of the PIDs (various methods) and limit to N jobs running at a given time.
I've had a great deal of success with this method, YMMV however based on your needs and your implementation.
how about PHPscheduler..R they not better than cronjobs? I think crons would be independent of the application hence would be difficult if one has to change the host..i am not really sure though..It would be great if anyone can comment on this!! Thanks!
I want to a e-cards or something like that. The user can choose the e-cards, after chosen, he must enter the some fields like name(to and from), email(to and from), message and I want to let user to choose which date to send the e-cards.
How to send the e-cards on specific day? I need to write a script that run every new day? How to do that? Sorry, I am new to php... (but not beginner like not even know how to execute mysql query, get message from url etc)
Yes, you need a script that runs every day. (Barring ridiculous maneuvers like trying to fake this by checking on Web requests.) The usual way to do this in a Unix context is called a cron job; if your hosting provider is Unix-based, you should look into what they provide for making cron jobs available to you. On Windows there's a parallel service called Scheduled Tasks.
A similar question was disscussed here resetting-a-mysql-field-value-without-user-execution
I'll just reiterate: There are web based cron services too. This could come in handy if you only got a shared hosting plan and can't add cron jobs. They will call an URL at a regular interval that you can set. Usually very cheap. (Cheaper than upgrading to a root-access server anyway.)
Just search Google for web based cron
ciao!
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This is for *nix.
Let's say you have a php script that sends email on a specific day called mailer.php
<?php
//mailer.php
if (date("m/d/Y") == "06/02/2009") {
mail("client#email", "Subject", "Body");
}
?>
We are going to assume that you already have cron daemon running in the background.
If you have root access to your machine, then setting up a cron job is simple as editing a file.
Open up /etc/crontab file and add the following task:
1 14 * * * root php /path/to/your/scrip/mailer.php
This means, as a root, the mailer.php script will be running daily at 02:01PM. You can change the numbers to whatever you desire.
This is somehow complex. First it depends on your system. If it is Linux/BSD/Unix/Solaris then you have this handy utility as cron. If you are using Windows, you have Scheduled Tasks. Run your script daily (or as you wish) and check what cards you have to send today.