Virtual Cron

Many Web applications need to execute periodic tasks. Some operating systems come with programs, like cron or at, to execute scheduled tasks. However, under some Web hosting environments these programs cannot be used. Virtual Cron provides an alternative solution that can be used in more restricted hosting environments. It uses files to keep track of the last time when a periodical task was executed. The site Web page scripts can use the class to check these files. The class can tell when it is time to execute a task again. When it is time, the same script can execute the scheduled task without depending on external programs.