Question

I am showing the value of the timer.php through AJAX in index.php . However I am concern about the performance of this, if it is a server killer if there are 30 people online, and things like this. Do you suggest me some edits?

Thank you.

index.php

<script language='JavaScript'>
setInterval( 'SANAjax();', 1000 );

$(function() {
SANAjax = function(){

$('#dataDisplay').load('timer.php');

}
 });

</script>
<div id="dataDisplay"></div>

timer.php

function time_difference($endtime){
    $days= (date("j",$endtime)-1);
    $hours =date("G",$endtime);
    $mins =date("i",$endtime);
    $secs =date("s",$endtime);
    $diff="'day': ".$days.",'hour': ".$hours.",'min': ".$mins.",'sec': ".$secs;
    return $diff;
}   

$future_time = mktime(0, 0, 0, 9, 19, 2011);
$now_time = strtotime("+2 hours");
$end_time = $future_time - $now_time;
$difference = time_difference($end_time);
if ($future_time <= $now_time ) { echo "Date reached"; } else { echo $difference; };
?>

Answer 1

Depends on your server specs and number of clients, this could quickly become a server-killer.

The multiple calls to a file every second will quickly put a lot of load for nothing though, so best practice calls for using a javascript timer countdown. I particularly like this one: http://stuntsnippets.com/javascript-countdown/

And for the jQuery implementation:

<script type="text/javascript">
var myDate = new Date(); //Retrieve actual date
myDate.setTime(this.getTime() + (3600 * 2)); //Add two hours

$(document).ready(function() {
    $("#time").countdown({
        date: myDate.toGMTString(),
        onComplete: function( event ){
            $(this).html("completed");
        },
        leadingZero: true
    });
});
</script>

<p id="time" class="time"></p>

This should be enough, no more need for PHP calls and the client does everything.