Home/ Questions/Q 6775615
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-26T15:55:39+00:00

I have a php file which pulls some data from external API’s, and I

  • 0

I have a php file which pulls some data from external API’s, and I want to schedule it to do so every few hours (or every few days). Some googleing led me to “scheduled tasks”, but it seems I need to be running my own server to do it?

So far, all the PHP and MySQL I’ve done have been very simple form-filling, so I’m a little lost. Do I need to turn a computer into a server to do this, or should I look into hosts that allow you to run scripts? I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking for.

Side-question: how would I be able to prevent someone else from running the PHP script (therefor making tons of API calls)?

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    How are you running the script now? Windows or Linux? Linux is a no-brainer with cron: on a PHP-enabled server simply drop the PHP script somewhere, edit the crontab and away you go!

    Ex. for every 2 hours

    0 */2 * * * /usr/local/bin/php /path/to/script.php

    Edit Re: Mac

    launchd is apparently the preferred method to run scheduled tasks but I understand that OS X has cron capabilities as well being a UNIX derivative.

    • 0