How to schedule dynamic function with cron job?

Question

I want to know how I can schedule a dynamic(auto populated data) function to auto run everyday at saved time?

Let's say I have a form that once the button is clicked it sends the data to the function, which the posts the data. I simply want to automate that so that I don't have to press the button.

<ul>
    <?php 
    foreach($Class->retrieveData as $data)
    {
        <form method="post" action="">
            <li>
                <input type="hidden" name="name">'.$data['name'].'<br/>
                <input type="hidden" name="description">'.$data['description'].'<br/>
                <input type="submit" name="post_data"  value="Post">
            </li>
        </form>
    }
    ?>
</ul>

Now, the form will pass the data to the function.

if(isset($_POST['post_data'])) // if post_data button is clicked then it runs myFunction()
{
    myFunction();
}

myFunction()
{
    $name        = $_POST['name'];
    $description = $_POST['description'];
}

I tried doing the following but the problem is that Cron Job can only run the whole .php file, and I am retrieving the saved time to run from MySQL.

foreach($Class->getTime() as $timeData)
{
    $timeHour    = $timeData['timeHour'];
    $timeMinute = $timeData['timeMinute'];

    $hourMin    = date('H:i');
    $timeData   = ''.$timeHour.':'.$timeMinute.'';

    if($hourMin == $timeData)
    {
        run myFunction.
    }
}

$hourMin is the current hour:minute which is being matched against a saved time to auto run from Mysql. So if $hourMin == $timeData then the function will run.

How can I run Cron Job to auto run myFunction() if the $hourMin equals $timeData?

So...

List 1 = is to be runned at 10am
List 2 = is to be runned at 12pm
List 3 = is to be runned at 2pm

The 10am, 12pm, 2pm is the $timeHour and $timeMinute that is retrieved from MySQL but based on each list id's.

EDIT

@randomSeed,

1) I can schedule cron jobs.
2) $name and $description will all be arrays, so the following is what I am trying to accomplish.

$name = array(
    'Jon',
    'Steven',
    'Carter'
);

$description = array(
    'Jon is a great person.',
    'Steven has an outgoing character.',
    'Carter is a horrible person.'
);

I want to parse the first arrays from both $name and $description if the scheduled time is correct.

In database I have the following

postDataTime table

+----+---------+----------+------------+--------+
| iD | timeDay | timeHour | timeMinute | postiD |
+--------------------------------------+--------+
| 1  | *       | 9        | 0          | 21     |
|----|---------|----------|------------|--------|
| 2  | *       | 10       | 30         | 22     |
|----|---------|----------|------------|--------|
| 3  | *       | 11       | 0          | 23     |
+----|---------+----------+------------+--------+

iD         = auto incremented on upload.
timeDay    = * is everyday (cron job style)
timeHour   = Hour of the day to run the script
timeMinute = minute of the hour to run script
postiD     = this is the id of the post that is located in another table (n+1 relationship)

If it's difficult to understand.. what is quinoa

if(time() == 10:30(time from MySQL postiD = 22))
{
    // run myFunction with the data that is retrieved for that time ex:

    $postiD = '22';
    $name   = 'Steven';
    $description = 'Steven has an outgoing character.';

    // the above is what will be in the $_POST from the form and will be
    // sent to the myFunction()
}

I simply want to schedule everything according to the time that is saved to MySQL as I showed at the very top(postDataTime table). (I'd show what I have tried, but I have searched for countless hours for an example of what I am trying to accomplish but I cannot find anything and what I tried doesn't work.).

I thought I could use the exec() function but from what it seems that does not allow me to run functions, otherwise I would do the following..

$time = '10:30';
if($time == time())
{
    exec(myFunction());
}

Answer 1

Cron tasks require you to preset the times at which they run, they cannot (yes you could hack this by having a script which edits your crontab, but I would not say that is a very good idea) have their time to run decided dynamically. This means you essentially have two options:

1) Set a cronjob to run every minute and use a temp file which you touch to tell the last time that it ran one of the scheduled tasks Each time that it runs it checks if there was a task to run in between the last timestamp of your temp file and the current time, and if there is it runs the task. This is a gross but simple solution.

2) Don't use cron. Create a daemon which checks what times tasks need to be run and puts them into a priority queue, then it pops the earliest element and sleeps until it is time to run that task. It runs the task and reinserts it to be run 24 hours in the future and repeats. This solution is by far more elegant, but it also requires more work.