Question

I would like to ask some idea or solutions on how to make a count down timer in PHP. My page automatically refresh every minute using meta refresh so client side count down timer not needed. so server side PHP is what I am looking.

so here’s the scenario.

Last answer was 2012-01-02 10:00:00, the next answer should be 2012-01-02 10:45:00.

It means that it needs to add 45 mins from the last answer. from the current time let say for example 2012-01-02 10:05:00, so the count down timer will show 40 mins left for the next answer. if the timer becomes 0, it will show you lose. then user will answer it then another count down from the last answer added with 45 mins.

Answer 1

One solution could be to store timestamp directly of the previous answer and then add then compare it with correct time

$time_prev = $_some_how_from_db;
$time_now = time();
if($time_now-$time_prev>45*3600){
// do action of losing 
} 

This was to take action when the time is OVER

Else you can keep on updating using AJAX every minute. This will avoid your refresh, which may prove bad for users convenience