Continously running script

[drooh]

Ive got a radio station broadcasting over the internet. Im using a script to check and see how many listeners there are at a given time. Im then using php to create a graph so i can see listeners over a period of time.

my question is, in order for this script to work, it must be in a loop, say every 15 or 30 seconds. what is the best method for this, javascript?, it seems a cron executing every 15 sec would not be ideal

[eelixduppy]

You can use AJAX and query the server for the number of users at a regular interval. You might be able to limit the number of calls to the script if you just run a cron that collects the data and posts it to a file by itself, and then your other pages read from that file instead of invoking the script each time separately. Should save you on system resources.

[drooh]

ok, thats kind of what i have going on now, its simply writing to a text file.

but, is it ok to have ajax running in a loop like that to were it hits that script every 15 sec forever?

how much is too often to run a cron, from what little i know most dont use them more often then a few times per hour, at most every min...whats the rule?

[g1smd]

No rule, other than the load not impacting the ability of the server to do all of the other stuff that it needs to do.