Delay script running!! Help me!!!

[logus]

Hi!

I have one script "divided" in 2 parts. The first part must be run at load the page but second part must be run after 15minutes (naturally if user don't reaload the page...if the page is reloaded the "timeout" must be restart). Who i can obtain this? I try "sleep()" but this delay all page loading.

Any idea?

TNX!!

[weekender]

first, you can use [man]ignore_user_abort[/man] so that when a client closes the browser, the script will keep running

then use [man]set_time_limit[/man] to extend the maximum time the script will run, without timing out. If you don't set this, the script will fail after 30 seconds.

then use [man]sleep[/man] to pause the program for 15 minutes (900 seconds, btw). sleep will only delay code after the sleep funtion is called, so put it between your two sections of code.

hope this helps

adam

[logus]

ok for ignore_user_abort. TNX.

If i have understand set_time_limit is utilised for "stopping" script before "sleep", like this the page will haven't delay at run?

Anyway at the moment the page have delay to loading.

i insert at top this:

ignore_user_abort(true);
set_time_limit();

between 2 sections i insert this for now:

sleep(60);

Like this the page have delay again. Naturally the page is loaded after 60s...who i wrong? Pheraps the server run php in safemode and ignore set_time_limit?

Tnx again!

[Installer]

Some things to consider:

• While the script is "sleeping" the user's browser will show the page as still loading, i.e IE will show the incomplete progress bar and hourglass. You'd need to let the user know what's happening.
• Browsers decide when to display the http they receive, so it may be that none of the page will show until the script is completely done, or that the display is updated so many bytes at a time.
• IIS will count the time sleeping as part of the execution time, while Apache won't.
• The server may set to be send all or just some of the output at one time.

In short, using "sleep()" to ration browser display can be pretty much hit-or-miss.

[logus]

hummm....therefore i cannot sleep my second script section properly? Anyway i delay all page running. Unfortunatly the block with this code is loaded like first, than the page not appears properly....sigh....

[logus]

In practice the first part of this script write in one txt file (with a cookies control...) the name of user that open the page. After 15minutes, if user don't reload the page, the script must erase the name from file!!

This is my problem and delay second part execution is my idea: if user don't reaload any page the timeout-sleep terminate and the code of second part (after sleep...) erase the username line...but now (if sleep() work in this that way) i thinks isn't correct...

[Installer]

You could maybe put a meta line in your html header, like:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="900;URL=http://example/erase_line.php" />

Put the clean-up code in "erase_line.php", and have a meta line in that file that refreshes after, like, 1 second or however long to give it time to do its job. Then it would refresh back to your original page, or whever you want it to. You could pass $GET or $SESSION variables for the scripts to keep track of what's happening.

[ednark]

have you considered upon page load storing the request somewhere else, a text file in your case... and have a seperate program outside of the webpage cron it every minute or x seconds... check the timestamp on the request, and execute the request if the timestamp is more that 15 minutes old?

is it important that the names are stored together. does the fact that one user is in the file effect any other names in the file? if not you could store each persons data seperate along with other user information in a database... and use a timestamp to detemine if they had previously executed your script 15 minutes ago on a per user basis

[this is not applicable directly to you but may help others]

or if you want... and this depends heavily upon what your script is doing... you could store the request specific to that user... and next page load from the user, im assuming sessions to track individual users... you check so see if there are any pending requests from this user.. if the request is 15 minutes old or more then run it then.... that way it only happens if and only if the user returns to your website... this is a more economical solution that doesn't use cron() but it is only applicable if the effect of the 15 minute delay only effect that user's data...