looped function...cuasing a freeze

[Uchiha_Sasuke]

hey, i have a question, is it possible to have a looped function, with a sleep in it, i'm trying it and it seems to freeze the page, so, what am i doing wrong

function doLog {
sleep(10);
mysql_query("UPDATE members SET loggedtime='".date ("YmdHi")."'' WHERE username='".$_SESSION["dbdusername"]."'");
doLog();
}

[laserlight]

More likely:

function doLog() {
	sleep(10);
	mysql_query("UPDATE `members`
		SET `loggedtime`='".date ("YmdHi")."''
		WHERE `username`='".$_SESSION["dbdusername"]."'");
	doLog();
}

It is not a problem with using sleep().
The problem is that this recursive function has no base case - its processing never ends.
You need to re-write it such that it will eventually terminate when some base case is reached.

[Uchiha_Sasuke]

the only thing is, is that i have the function to be looping while the user is viewing the page, or can that be done

i know you can mix JS with PHP, but how would i accomplish this?

[TheDefender]

If you are trying to run a loop in the background while the user views the page, you need to concentrate on JS. PHP is a server-side language, which means it is processed fully before the output is sent to the user's browser... What it sounds like you are trying to do is to loop something while the viewer is visiting the page... About the only thing you can do to "simulate" this behavior in PHP is to put your loop at the end of the page after all of the HTML so the HTML is sent to the browser while the PHP is running in the background.

[drawmack]

If you take defenders advice be sure to use flush() right befor the loop just to be safe. Also watch out as it could cause runaway processes and crash your server. Also a hacker could just load this page into 100 browser windows and get 100 of their friends to do the same. That's 100 * 100 = 10,000 people running recursive functions, endlessly on your server. It would probably only be a couple of minutes until they ran a buffer overflow and crashed your server. You've just be DOSed.

[Uchiha_Sasuke]

thank you both for your suggestions...i'll keep them in mind...

but also, the likely hood of a hacker homing in on my site..heh...

and i'll also look into that flush()...

thanks guys

[drawmack]

Originally posted by Uchiha Sasuke
but also, the likely hood of a hacker homing in on my site..heh...

well yeah but if you're on a shared host they may use your site to DOS someone else's