Running PHP file without Cron Jobs?

Question

I want to perform a task with a php file, (updating a feed) which I want to do automatically once a day. I DON'T want to have to load the file in a browser by hand. The file itself could be anything (very small and fast) but it needs to be run every day without using Cron jobs

is there any specific reason for run the file without cron job ? — Arun, Feb 02 '15 at 06:39
Check this thread: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7332804/run-a-php-file-in-a-cron-job-using-cpanel?rq=1 — Mikrobi, Feb 02 '15 at 08:58
@Mikrobi: What does that link have to do with the requirement to schedule a script without using a cron job? — Stefan, Aug 04 '15 at 12:23

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 12 '15 at 15:07

If you're on a Windows machine, you can use a scheduled task (here are the instructions for Windows 7, but Google "run scheduled task " to find similar pages for other versions). It has much the same options as Cron, with a simple interface.

Two other possible hacks:

Have the URL for the feed itself be a PHP script that updates the feed and outputs it directly. Then you could but a cache in front of that URL so it only refreshes once a day (for instance the free level of Cloudfare).
Have the PHP script create a webpage that refreshes itself once a day, using the meta refresh tag. Then open a browser window and never close it.

"scheduled task" is basically cron. just a different name for essentially the same thing... — Marc B, Jun 12 '15 at 15:10
Yes, but it is available to Windows users who don't have access to cron. — Joel, Jun 12 '15 at 15:16

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 12 '15 at 15:22

0

If the page you have created is exposed to network, you could theoretically run a cron-job from another machine on the said network and call a curl to the page: curl http://server/yourphp

answered Jun 12 '15 at 15:22

TomasH

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Running PHP file without Cron Jobs?

2 Answers2