Posted by Rik on 07/18/06 14:47

coyoteboyuk@hotmail.com wrote:
> I'm looking at creating a website that basically saves times and dates
> and emails specific people (all taken from a mysql database) when
> times have passed. I suppose something like a birthday reminder site,
> but not quite.
> All I'd like to know is: Is this possible

Very possible, not even that complicated.

> and how much of an
> undertaking is it to get the emails out at specific times, instead of
> run as a batch at fixed times from a linux cron script.

At specific times: hardly doable with PHP. Something has to trigger the
script. With the proper access, you might schedule loads and loads of
different cronjobs at specific times, but that's hardly a workable solution.

As it's about email, the "specific" time doesn't really matter though, you
can't predict how long an e-mail will take to arrive.

I'd just schedule a cronjob every 15 minutes or so, that queries the
database for tasks to perform. That should do it. If cronjobs aren't
possible, you could trigger it on site visits. If you've got a popular page,
you don't want to trigger it verey time. Add a possibility you will trigger
the script. Possibility = 1 / (average visitors per interval)

Grtz,
--
Rik Wasmus

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