How can I run PHP script in certain interval (e.g. once a day)?

php autorun
Adriana picture Adriana · May 14, 2009 · Viewed 33.4k times · Source

I have a php script that reads one file through http(the file is on other domain). I would like to read this file only once or twice a day, instead of connecting to it every time the website is refreshed. Is there any other way than doing it with cron? I dont want to use cron cause I prefer to setup this behaviour in the script itself .. so it is flexible, so I can use it anywhere without setting up cron every time. thanks

Answer

cOle2 picture cOle2 · May 14, 2009

I've done this kind of thing in the past when I didn't have access to cron:

$lastRunLog = '/path/to/lastrun.log';
if (file_exists($lastRunLog)) {
    $lastRun = file_get_contents($lastRunLog);
    if (time() - $lastRun >= 86400) {
         //its been more than a day so run our external file
         $cron = file_get_contents('http://example.com/external/file.php');

         //update lastrun.log with current time
         file_put_contents($lastRunLog, time());
    }
}

Related questions

How do I check if a string contains a specific word?

Consider: $a = 'How are you?'; if ($a contains 'are') echo 'true'; Suppose I have the code above, what is the correct way to write the statement if ($a contains 'are')?

Read More
Get the full URL in PHP

I use this code to get the full URL: $actual_link = 'http://'.$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; The problem is that I use some masks in my .htaccess, so what we see in the URL is not always …

Read More
How do I get PHP errors to display?

I have checked my PHP ini file (php.ini) and display_errors is set and also error reporting is E_ALL. I have restarted my Apache webserver. I have even put these lines at the top of my script, and …

Read More