Execute script at variable time

Question

I'm aware of cron jobs to execute commands at a certain time, but what if that time is not constant? For instance, suppose a user asks for a reminder email exactly 1hr after signing up for something, is there an easy way to go about doing this?

Timing is critical. I am actually trying to create AI that will essentially act on its own but only at variable points during the day. Any help would be appreciated!

Marc B · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-30 20:08:01Z

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You can use at to schedule jobs for specific times. cron is for repeating jobs, at is for one-shot/oddball interval ones. Both have a resolution of 1 minute, though, so you can't specify a start period with seconds granularity.

The command's available on both Unix/Linux and Windows.

answered Aug 30, 2011 at 20:08

Marc B

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Ed Heal Over a year ago

Marc - Good solution. Why reinvent the wheel!

David Laberge · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-30 20:25:38Z

1

Here a workable flow:

user Requests email in 1 hour
You insert into the a table action (action_id, time)
On the PHP server create a cron job to check the action in the action table every minute, then do the action that need to be done at that time

That is a simple example from the request. It might get a bit more complex then that.

EDIT : this suggestion might be good only if you need to be very precise with the time management!

edited Aug 30, 2011 at 20:25

answered Aug 30, 2011 at 20:10

David Laberge

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Alper Over a year ago

I was thinking about creating a cron job to check a database every minute or so, but I thought that might be taxing to the server. Is that the most efficient way?

David Laberge Over a year ago

That depens on your context. How many action? times How many users? the processing required by action. All these questions might help you decides if the suggessted workflow is good.

Baz1nga · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-30 20:15:23Z

1

if you dont wanna use the cron triggers and you are not comfortable with them here are two php scheduling libraries..

1) http://www.php.brickhost.com/

2) http://www.phpjobscheduler.co.uk/

Try them if you like:

answered Aug 30, 2011 at 20:15

Baz1nga

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