Weekly Email

nexgen_x

I'm not sure if this is possible with php - its essentially a mailing list.

Basically I want a randomly generated code (which I can use srand for) to be sent to a specific email address every monday, and also to be stored in my database.

I'm guessing its impossible for a script to execute itself without being run/visited? If it is indeed impossible, is there a cheap way of getting the same effect? Or do you suggest I look into a different language for doing this?

Cheers,

Jayson

You can set up a cron job to execute the script whenever you want.

archangel_617b

Running a PHP script after a time-lapse is a function of your operating system. In 'nix it is bleeding easy to set this up. Checkout crontab (man crontab) and once you get a handle on the syntax, you are good to go. Add a task to be run on Mondays which runs your script.

Here's an entry I have in my crontab which runs a script named "growth.php" every twenty minutes and passes it the switch "-a":

0,20,40 /home/uro/html/.scripts/growth.php -a 1>/dev/null

If you have the (mis)fortune of being in Windows, you get to use the Windows Scheduler. I am not sure how to even run a script in Windows, but there's got to be a way.

nexgen_x

Well I'm on windows, but (more importantly) my site is hosted on a linux server. Does this Crontab thing need to be installed in some way or another?

Jayson

Originally posted by nexgen_x
Well I'm on windows, but (more importantly) my site is hosted on a linux server. Does this Crontab thing need to be installed in some way or another?

You'll have to check with your host. If you have some kind of control panel for your website, look around in it and see if you can find a thing for setting up crontabs. On my host its buried under "ftp manager" of all places. Most Linux hosts provide crontabs.