any help greatly appreciated: RE: timer & auto updates

[celibate54]

I posted this in the newbie forum but got little response, I'm hoping there is a different crowd here that might have better insight as to what I am attempting to do.

"How would I go about creating a timer that constantly updates and displays the current time? (displaying hr:mm:ss)

I'm trying to create a function that could potentially be used in web turn based games. I'd want it so that every XX minute every 'player' would receive a turn and potentially units/credits/cash/etc

Also, would this be a function i'd have the database auto do? I'd like it so that even if NO users are online the timer still goes internally and the turns/money/etc are still given out.

thanks in advance! I've been reading this board pretty religiously trying to find an answer to my question. Great resource site so far!

-K"

addition:

there's no way around java? How does java communicate with the database?

Isn't there a way to have the database automatically do it? Because, isn't javascript client side so if 'no users are on' then it wouldn't keep updating?

[mrhappiness]

if no user's are on you don't need to update

you should be able to use the mysql date and time functions to calculate the # of minutes after the last update and modify the data

UPDATE members
SET points = points + 2.5 * minutes_after_last_update

(pseudo)

of course a cronjob would be an alternative

[celibate54]

could you be a bit more specific? what's a cronjob?

so make it so that everytime a user logs in it THEN updates?

thanks again!

[celibate54]

bumping -- hoping different users will see this and have some sort of solution, thanks again!