window.setTimeout equivalent in PHP?

External Since: Sep 02, 2007 Posts: 9

Is there a straightforward way of implementing a PHP equivalent to
window.setTimeout?

In a javascript web app, it's often the case that things are done on
an event driven basis. For example, html elements might have things
like onclick="buttonClicked()" to indicate that the function
buttonClicked should be run when that element is clicked.

The analogue can be done in PHP (on Windows) using com_event_sink. In
other words, you can respond to events that a COM object (such as
Excel, Internet Explorer, Words, etc) experiences via a PHP function.
Of course, at the end of your PHP script you would have a loop to the
effect of
while ($GLOBALS['keepLooping']) { com_message_pump(200); }
so that the PHP script stays in memory and doesn't terminate. That is
to say, in this way those event callback functions will be available.
So far, so good.

However, getting a PHP function to run on a timed basis (without any
delay loops) does not seem so easy, which leads to my question: Is
there a straightforward way of implementing a PHP equivalent to
window.setTimeout?

In other words, I'd like to be able to kick off a PHP function after a
certain amount of time has elapsed. One possible way to think of this
is an event driven Sleep. One way to do this is to ensure that I have
a copy of IE up, and then I can use IE's window's own .setTimeout to
tie it into PHP, but this is a bit messy not to mention that I don't
like the IE requirement.

Thanks for any ideas,
Csaba Gabor from Vienna

External Since: Aug 11, 2004 Posts: 1366

Csaba Gabor wrote:
> Is there a straightforward way of implementing a PHP equivalent to
> window.setTimeout?
>
> In a javascript web app, it's often the case that things are done on
> an event driven basis. For example, html elements might have things
> like onclick="buttonClicked()" to indicate that the function
> buttonClicked should be run when that element is clicked.
>
> The analogue can be done in PHP (on Windows) using com_event_sink. In
> other words, you can respond to events that a COM object (such as
> Excel, Internet Explorer, Words, etc) experiences via a PHP function.
> Of course, at the end of your PHP script you would have a loop to the
> effect of
> while ($GLOBALS['keepLooping']) { com_message_pump(200); }
> so that the PHP script stays in memory and doesn't terminate. That is
> to say, in this way those event callback functions will be available.
> So far, so good.
>
> However, getting a PHP function to run on a timed basis (without any
> delay loops) does not seem so easy, which leads to my question: Is
> there a straightforward way of implementing a PHP equivalent to
> window.setTimeout?
>
> In other words, I'd like to be able to kick off a PHP function after a
> certain amount of time has elapsed. One possible way to think of this
> is an event driven Sleep. One way to do this is to ensure that I have
> a copy of IE up, and then I can use IE's window's own .setTimeout to
> tie it into PHP, but this is a bit messy not to mention that I don't
> like the IE requirement.
>
> Thanks for any ideas,
> Csaba Gabor from Vienna
>

No, PHP is not an event-driven language. And, as a web app, it receives
no events from the client.

What exactly are you trying to do?

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