program to run at a scheduled time

niroshan

Hi guys,
I want to write a program that will execute tasks automatically at a scheduled time. It is basically a php program that will send emails automatically to customers on a given date and time.
My idea is to make a php program and create a .bat file to execute php program and insert the .bat file to the system’s scheduler. I want some advice before trying this out. Is this is the way to do this? or is there any other way to make this easier?
Keep in mind that my program will run on a unix server.

I will really appreciate it, if some one can help me.

Thank you,
Niroshan

tha_mink

.bat is a windows batch file. (of course in UNIX it doesn't matter what you call em but still...)

Make it a crontab.

http://www.htmlcenter.com/tutorials/tutorials.cfm/155/PHP/

You can make it as simple as writing a php file on your webserver that will do the mailing and just make cron hit it, or you can just make lynx or even wget hit it.

If you ISP is really slick, you can use the cli version of php. But that's probably wishfull thinking.

Do it with a crontab
good luck

cdxrevvved

I keep hearing about this crontab thing... maybe i should chek out the link... 😕

dalecosp

Originally posted by cdxrevvved
I keep hearing about this crontab thing... maybe i should chek out the link... 😕

Or, just break down and learn 'Nix.... 😃

cdxrevvved

trying... slowly... prob is I broke my linux box (physically..dont ask), and now the only board I can run it on that I have spare, doesnt have a mouse or keyboard port onboard... and where oh where did that dongle go......

niroshan

thank you very much for helping with my prob. I looked at you site it`s very helpful.

dalecosp

Originally posted by cdxrevvved
trying... slowly... prob is I broke my linux box (physically..dont ask), and now the only board I can run it on that I have spare, doesnt have a mouse or keyboard port onboard... and where oh where did that dongle go......

Ouch! Of course, most of my 'Nix boxes don't have keyboards or mice (no X on servers...) but I suppose they did when I set them up, or how would I have told them they didn't need a keyboard in the first place?

Don't feel too bad...I go though a couple keyboards a year; or, more accurately, my fist has gone through a couple keyboards in the last year 🙂 . I do have somebody I talk about this with....heh

tha_mink

You could always use SSH to tunnel an X connection or even to rock text mode.

niroshan

Hi,
First of all thank you very much tha_mink to giving me that web site address. But tell you the truth I still have some problems.

I`m not working in my server machine. Because my server is in another country I log in to it using telnet.
My server has two folders,
1. public_ftp
2. public_html

So my first question is what is the directory I have to go before I type the command,

#crontab –e

As the article said “#crontab –e” will Create the crontab entry.
What I done was I didn’t went to any directory, after I logged in to the server I directly typed the command. But nothing happened. But according to the article it should give me editor to enter the executable line.

The main thing is that I’m really new to this crontab thing

Pls tell me what I am going wrong here? If you explain this crontab thing with an example I will be much appreciated.

Thank you very much
niroshan

superwormy

Not #crontab -e

Just:
crontab -e

And if STILL nothing comes up, you need to talk to your ISP, you might not have permissions with cron or something... although thats very unlikely...

mystrymaster

alright what if you are stuck running on windows boxes and need to grab data from a database and email it out at the same time everyday? How would I do that

superwormy

I'd get Cron For Windows.
http://www.wincron.co.uk/

Otherwise, I'd use the Windows Task Schedular ( providing your host allows it... )

Otherwise... I don't know :-)

Hiccup

Have your browser call your script automatically. Using meta tags you can set the browser to "refresh" itself every hour or minute or second...

Then just have the browser point to the url of your php script. It will run it and you can check the current time against when you want things done to determine if the email should be sent now or not...

THis is very Low tech, but it will work.

niroshan

Thanks a lot for every one who replied.

As superwormy said I typed only crontab -e and it gave me a message as,

"You (zeelabs) are not allowed to use this program (crontab) see crontab(1) for more information."

Does this mean that I don’t have permission to use crons? Please give me some advice regarding this matter. I really need your help.

I came across some cool websites regarding crons , You check them out at,

http://uwsg.iu.edu/usail/automation/cron.html
http://www.geocities.com/tipsforlinux/articles/16.html

Good luck and looking forward for a speedy reply,

Niroshan.

dalecosp

Yup, that's what it means.

Talk to your hosts.....