Question

I would like to stop people from constantly syncing/updating items in the DB as this could cause potential problems. I have a time the last sync/update occured which is stored in the DB. What I need to do is disable the user from initiating another update/sync until 15 minutes has passed since the last update/sync.

How would i go about doing this?

Update: for some reason i am getting the error “A new expression requires (), [], or {} after type” on DateTime lastUpdate. Any ideas why this could be?

 DataDataContext dc = new DataDataContext();

        DateTime lastUpdate = from t in dc.Settings
                              where t.id == 1
                              select t.lastSync;


        if ((DateTime.Now - lastUpdate).TotalMinutes >= 15)
        {

        }
        else { }

Update: Sorted, i missed off the (); of the datacontext!! facepalm

Final Update: All fixed and working! Many thanks for all your help, for the ones who think this “smells fishy” or “is bad” then here is what i did!!

DateTime lastUpdate = (from t in dc.Settings
                               where t.id == 1
                               select t.lastSync).Single();


        if ((DateTime.Now - lastUpdate).TotalMinutes >= 15)
        {
            syncbuttons.Visible = false;
        }
        else { syncbuttons.Visible = true; }

Now please explain what is so suspect about what i am trying to do? Stopping users from hammering a database? What if i have 30 users attempting to update/sync. Would not be that good would it!

Answer 1

DateTime lastUpdate = ...;  // Retrieve from DB
TimeSpan elapsed = DateTime.Now - lastUpdate;
if (elapsed.TotalMinutes >= 15)
{
}

Or, in one line:

if ((DateTime.Now - lastUpdate).TotalMinutes >= 15)