Schedule and execute a PHP script automatically

Question

I have written a PHP script which generates an SQL file containing all tables in my database. What I want to do is execute this script daily or every n days. I have read about cron jobs but I am using Windows. How can I automate the script execution on the server?

Answer 1

You'll need to add a scheduled task to call the URL.

First of all, read up here: MS KB - this is for Windows XP.

Second, you'll need some way to call the URL - i'd recommend using something like wget - this way you can call the URL and save the output to a file, so you can see what the debug output is. You can get hold of wget on this page.

Final step is, as Gabriel says, write a batch file to tie all this up, then away you go.

e: wget is pretty simple to use, but if you have any issues, leave a comment and I'll help out.

ee: thinking about it, you don't even really need a batch file, and could just call wget directly..

Answer 2

add a scheduled task to request the url. either using a batch file or a script file (WSH).

http://blog.netnerds.net/2007/01/vbscript-download-and-save-a-binary-file/

this script will allow you to download binary data from a web source. Modify it to work for you particular case. This vbs file can either be run directly or executed from within a script. Alternately you do not have to save the file using the script, you can just output the contents (WScript.Echo objXMLHTTP.ResponseBody) and utilize the CMD out to file argument:

cscript download.vbs > logfile.log

save that bad boy in a .bat file somewhere useful and call it in the scheduler: http://lifehacker.com/153089/hack-attack-using-windows-scheduled-tasks

Answer 3

Cron is not always available on many hosting accounts.

But try this: http://www.phpjobscheduler.co.uk/ its free, has a useful interface so you can see all the scheduled tasks and will run on any host that provides php and mysql.