Automatic?!

rhathid

Hello.

Is there a way to write a PHP script that will poll a database or send out information based on the time?

Let's say I have a reminded stored in a database. Let's say I want this reminder to send me an E-mail at 4PM next Wednesday, how would I accomplish this?

As of right now, I don't know how to make PHP independent of a user browsing a site.

The alternatives I've come up with would be writing a stand-alone program to poll a database and perform this function, but if I can get a script to do it that resides on a web site I would much rather utilize that ability.

Thanks,

Scott

drawmack

first read this: http://www.phpbuilder.net/columns/darrell20000319.php3?aid=28

then set up the shell script as a cron job.

rhathid

Thanks, I thought it was possible. I'm trying to limit the different types of languages I use.

JavaScript
PHP
Java

So if I can avoid adding Perl, that works for me.

drawmack

don't know why you would want to limit the languages you use. I currently know about 25 languages and every new one that I learn adds tricks to my all around programming.

rhathid

It's to cumbersome and wearing too many hats. I have a career where I put in 60 to 70 hours a week, a business to run, social life, and hit the gym 3 times a week. Plus I'm back in school to get a business degree. 🙂

I don't code for a living, but we do use VB. I write in a number of languages. My main concern is "Does it work?". I'll try to get things done correctly in the process and if I'm focused on doing a long term application, then I'll put the effort in. But as of now, I don't have the time.

If you have 1 week to get something done that would take a month if you did it right, then you're just concerned with knowing what you need to do to get it to work with the least amount of effort.

Time is money in the business world, if I told a business it would take me 3 months to do something they wanted yesterday, I would be making any side money at all. When it blows up and they are depending on me, then I can do it right and they can pay me.

drawmack

Originally posted by rhathid
Time is money in the business world, if I told a business it would take me 3 months to do something they wanted yesterday, I would be making any side money at all. When it blows up and they are depending on me, then I can do it right and they can pay me. [/B]

Actually when someone tells me they can get it elsewhere cheaper I tell them. If you ever have problems with the code you get I'll be here. So far I've had 6 companies get it from someone else with your attitude and call me when it blew up instead of the original programmer and 5 of those times I had to do the job from scratch and they've had to pay for it.

rhathid

I didn't mean it like that. I do turn down business, but I will take the business when they give me a deadline and I tell them it's not enough time. If they understand it and want to take the risk, then I'm open to it.

I haven't personally had anything blow up yet. I was referring for large buerocratic companies that push deadlines and are driving by sales and marketing as opposed to project management.

I still stand by time is money in the business world. There are a lot of companies that want something done right away that should be given 3 months. Let's say the VP of marketing from a company promises the SVP something within 1 month. He has 1 month to get it done and prove it to the SVP. So they put deadlines on these things and rather than have a project take 3 times longer and exceed the budget they would rather not pursue the project at all. I've run into this countless times.

I have a customer related to my career. They need to impliment a solution that costs $29,000. They won't do it because of the costs, but it's the right thing to do. They are running on bandaids. They could create their own solution because it's been over 2 years. But the cost of them creating that solution with the time involved is more than the solution costs.

It happens. When time is money and you work for a company that has a deadline, they just want what works. If I did everything the best way, I wouldn't have a job anymore. There are not enough hours in the week for me to code right, complete every task I'm given, and all the other red tape I have to go through. So I focus on the priorities and my job function. I'm a consultant, not a programmer, so it's more important that I consult on our products and keep the coding basic. That's in VB.

ZibingsCoder

Originally posted by rhathid
I still stand by time is money in the business world. There are a lot of companies that want something done right away that should be given 3 months.

You know...I'm still gonna go with drawmack here. I'm a junior in college, majoring in Business Administration, Computer Science, -and- Psychology. That order right there is also the order I'd like to think my abilities go in, from best to worst.

Time is money, yes, but quality is more money. If a business is too stupid to realize that doing something right the first time will get them a larger return in the long run, they aren't around for the long run, plain and simple.

I've taught myself close to 40+ programming languages, and I must say its the best thing I've ever done. If someone wants something done, I can say - with confidence -, sure thing, I can do that. Don't push off quality and personal portability in exchange for promptness and efficiency. Hell...if you get really good, those four things will come together anyways...praying that'll start happening to me someday. 😉

drawmack

I once told someone that I needed a couple of days to research something because I had never done exactly what he wanted before. I had done similar thing, but not this exact thing. I was confident that I could do it, and could do it correctly, but I needed to do some research before I could tell him how long it would take.

He said that he needed the project completed in three days and could not wait for me to do research so he was going with someone else.

Well two weeks later he called me and said the project still wasn't completed because the guy he hired was an idiot. Then he told me he'd pay me whatever I wanted and do so hourly instead of quoted to get the job done.

So he wound up paying for the research instead of just waiting for it in the first place. BTW: I also charged him for phone, email time. All in all he probably paid me double what he would have in the first place.

The same gentleman came back to me about six months later for another project. Told me, yet again, I can get that cheaper and faster over here. I said, if you think that is best go right ahead. He signed my quote the next day.