executing remote php scripts consecutively

Question

I have a couple php scripts on remote web servers and I'm not sure how to create a local script that will execute those remote scripts consecutively (a delay between each one of a few seconds would be fine) and then proceed with the execution of the local php script (which analyzes the information gathered by the remote scripts).

At the moment I use iframes just to run the remote scripts, but I'd prefer not to.

I'm assuming I can use javascript to do this, but while I can program PHP/MySQL with some success - I'm lost when it comes to javascript.

Answer 1

You could use cURL in PHP. It will make an http request and wait for the result, then use sleep() to space out the executions.

http://us3.php.net/curl

Answer 2

If you know all URLs beforehead, you may use something like this:

var data = [];
$.when( $.ajax("url1.php") ).then(function(ajaxArgs){
data.push(ajaxArgs);
$.when( $.ajax("url2.php") ).then(function(ajaxArgs){
data.push(ajaxArgs);
$.when( $.ajax("url3.php") ).then(function(ajaxArgs){
data.push(ajaxArgs);
// process data
})
})
});

with jQuery 1.5 http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.when

Answer 3

Depending on your OS and your server's OS, you could do something like this from cron:

ssh user@host '/usr/bin/php /path/to/script.php'

You could also just run it directly on the server via cron:

/usr/bin/php /path/to/script.php

Alternatively, you could use wget or curl to run the script via Apache/your-fav-web-server. Though, the above method has benefits such as easily getting an email of the script errors.

Perhaps give a little more info:
* remote server OS?
* server shell access?
* workstation/local server OS?

Answer 4

if you use jquery you can try something like

$(function(){
    $.get('http://youraddress/script1.php',function(){
        $.get('http://youraddress/script2.php',function(){
            $.get('http://youraddress/script3.php',function(){
                $.get('http://youraddress/script4.php',function(){
                    //you are done
                });
            });
        });
    });
});