Hi,

I am trying to set up a email reminder thing that sends a email to a user after 7 days then also after 6 or 12 months.
Not sure if php can do this or where to even start.
I know its possible, however is it a script that I need to write or is it something on the server?

Thanks for you help

You will need a database table (e.g. MySQL) to keep the status for each person (especially the initial activity date and their email address. You will then need a program that is run every day to go through the database table and determine who is due for a reminder. In order to run it every day, you will probably want to use the Cron facility that is generally available on Unix servers.

There are systems that can do the kind of thing that you require (or at least most of it). You may want to look at Hotscripts.com and sourceforge.net as a starting point. You will still need some expertise to set it up and based on the questions you are asking, you either have a lot of learning to do or you need to find someone to do this for you.

You will need a database table (e.g. MySQL) to keep the status for each person (especially the initial activity date and their email address. You will then need a program that is run every day to go through the database table and determine who is due for a reminder. In order to run it every day, you will probably want to use the Cron facility that is generally available on Unix servers.

There are systems that can do the kind of thing that you require (or at least most of it). You may want to look at Hotscripts.com and sourceforge.net as a starting point. You will still need some expertise to set it up and based on the questions you are asking, you either have a lot of learning to do or you need to find someone to do this for you.

I went into my hosting server and it's fairly simple to set one up. However I would like to know if it will work. I have written a script for it to do. This is a normal PHP script that gets info from my database and then sends out a email to users depending on some of the results.
So my question is:
Is the 'cron' program, just going to run this script ever time I tell it to? is that all it does?

Thanks for helping me out on this one. :)

Cron basically executes a program on a schedule that you set. You may have access through your control panel but if not you should contact your web host.

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