Add to timer without Javascript?

PopSmith · #1 (**permalink**) 05-03-09, 08:51 PM

First, I am not sure if what I am looking to do is even possible.

I have an idea in my head (and on paper) for an auction site that needs multiple, independent timers.

What I believe to be the trickiest part of what I am looking to do, and the reason I don't think it's possible, at least without JavaScript, is I want the timer to reset itself to 20 seconds when someone bids unless it is currently at a greater time.

Basically, if the timer is at anything greater than 20 seconds and someone bids the timer does nothing, if the timer is at anything less than 20 seconds when someone bids it resets itself to 20 seconds. I have seen examples of sites similar to my idea, but they all use JavaScript for the timers without any "backup" in case the user doesn't have JavaScript enabled.

If it is possible I would like to have it setup where the timers do not rely on JavaScript (or Java), or at the very least have a reliable alternative, so that if a user can't or doesn't want to enable JavaScript they can still participate on the site.

The only reason I am not even sure this is possible is that I can't find any examples of this idea, either paid or free, anywhere on the web.

Also, in case it matters, I plan on coding the site using PHP because I like the way you can dynamically change the site a lot easier than other languages. I am not set on using PHP, however, especially if another coding language would be more "appropriate" for what I am trying to do.

wirehopper · #2 (**permalink**) 05-03-09, 11:04 PM

You could use PHP to run timeouts, by checking the session time on the last request to determine if the person responded before the duration timed out.

PHP Code:


			
if (isset($_SESSION['last_request']))

{

  $t20ago=time()-20;  /* Time 20 seconds ago */

  $bOk=($t20ago>$_SESSION['last_request'])  /* If the last request was made less than 20 seconds ago */

  if ($bOk)

    echo 'okay';

  else

    echo 'too late';

}

$_SESSION['last_request']=time();  /* Update last request time */

Not tested

PopSmith · #3 (**permalink**) 05-14-09, 10:11 PM

Sorry it took me forever to get back. I am actually in the process of studying and learning PHP so I'm not real good at it yet.

Anyway, I copied and pasted the quoted code in a PHP page created via DreamWeaver before uploading it to my test bed site. I made sure it was a ".php" file and pulled it up in my browser, which gave me the following syntax error:

Quote:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_IF in /home/content/p/o/p/popsmith/html/timertest.php on line 14

I did some googling and messed with the code a bit. However, I didn't have any luck fixing it.

EDIT: "Line 14" is referring to this one:

PHP Code:


			
if ($bOk)

In case it's needed here is the entire code including the edits I did in an attempt to fix the error:

PHP Code:


			
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<head>

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

<title>PHP Timer test</title>

</head>



<body>

<?php

if (isset($_SESSION['last_request'])) 

{ 

  $t20ago=time()-20;  /* Time 20 seconds ago */ 

  $bOk=($t20ago>$_SESSION['last_request'])  /* If the last request was made less than 20 seconds ago */ 

  if ($bOk)

       { 

    echo 'Bid!';

       }

    else

    {

    echo 'Finished!'; 

    }

}

$_SESSION['last_request']=time();  /* Update last request time */

?>

</body>

</html>