Bank interest without cron job? Read this!

[Daniel15]

Hi,
 Unfortunately, some people don't have access to cron jobs, and therefore ask me if there's a way to add the interest without using cron jobs.

First, create a file somewhere on your website. Give it a random name, maybe something like dointerest2342351.php. This is so members of your site don't know the name of the file, and therefore can't add the interest themselves. Put the following text in the file:

Code: (php) [Select]

<?php
/**********************************************\
| SMFSHOP (Shop MOD for Simple Machines Forum) |
|         (c) 2005 DanSoft Australia           |
|      http://www.dansoftaustralia.net/        |
\**********************************************/

//File: dointerest.php
//      The file to add interest to member's bank

//VERSION: 1.31 (Build 7)
//DATE: 10th December 2005

include("/home/[username]/public_html/forum/SSI.php");

$interest_rate = $modSettings['shopInterest'] / 100;
db_query("UPDATE {$db_prefix}members
SET moneyBank = moneyBank + (moneyBank*{$interest_rate})", __FILE__, __LINE__);

echo "Interest added at ".date("d/m/Y h:i:s A");
?>

Replace '/home/[username]/public_html/forum/' with the absolute URL of the forum. This can be found by going to SMF Admin Panel --> Edit Server Settings --> SMF Directory. It will look something like '/home/username/public_html/forum'.

Next, we use a utility that calls this script every day. There are several web-based cron tools, but most are in other languages. You can get a Windows program that will call the script every day, or, if you want to, you could just run the script yourself

Once you've set that up, your interest should now be working!

UPDATE: You may try to call the script via the Windows Task Scheduler. Please see this post for more details

[tazpot]

I found a place that will let you set up a free web based cron job www.cronjobs.org/index.php
The only info you need to change are...

Name.....just make something up
URL http......ie www.yoursite.com/forum/your_bankinterest.php
Expire after........change to 999 because setting to 000 will give an error
HOUR.....set to 0am or whatever time you want

Hope this helps someone 

[Vinspire]

I found a place that will let you set up a free web based cron job www.cronjobs.org/index.php
The only info you need to change are...

Name.....just make something up
URL http......ie www.yoursite.com/forum/your_bankinterest.php
Expire after........change to 999 because setting to 000 will give an error
HOUR.....set to 0am or whatever time you want

Hope this helps someone 

I am still waiting for a validation email from that site 

Next, we use a utility that calls this script every day. There are several web-based cron tools, but most are in other languages. You can get a Windows program that will call the script every day, or, if you want to, you could just run the script yourself Smiley

UPDATE: You may try to call the script via the Windows Task Scheduler. Please see this post for more details

How to do this & i did follow the link .... and the link for the windows task scheduler is dead 

[Daniel15]

and the link for the windows task scheduler is dead

Bah, my find-and-replace made the link incorrect!
Try this link instead: http://www.daniel15.com/forum/index.php?topic=95.msg349#msg349

[Vinspire]

Nvm daniel. Manage to get it working by doing cron job in the cpanel   

[Levita]

Ehm, sorry
but how to call the script myself?

[Levita]

*bump* ?

[SuperTongue]

I was wondering... All you have to do is visit http://url/forum/interest.php (or whatever I named it) to activiate it, right? Well I went to it and it was a blank page. Is this normal?

[TheGamer]

Completely normal.

[Daniel15]

Well, you should get a page saying 'Interest added at ' followed by the date... However, if you don't, it should be fine (as long as the interest is actually added)

For the 'do_interest.php' file, it won't work if you call it from your browser...

[prisoner]

Hello,

there is a misstake in the script by Daniel15, i have correct them...

<?php
/**********************************************\
| SMFSHOP (Shop MOD for Simple Machines Forum) |
|         (c) 2005 DanSoft Australia           |
|      http://www.dansoftaustralia.com/        |
\**********************************************/

//File: dointerest.php
//      The file to add interest to member's bank

//VERSION: 1.31 (Build 7)
//DATE: 10th December 2005

include("/home/[username]/public_html/forum/SSI.php");
   
$interest_rate = $modSettings['shopInterest'] / 100;
db_query("UPDATE {$db_prefix}members
      SET moneyBank = moneyBank + (moneyBank*{$interest_rate})", __FILE__, __LINE__);
   
echo "Interest added at ".date("d/m/Y h:i:s A");
?>


The last "}" must be deleted, i assume he forgot this while editing original dointere4st.php

Now everything should working if you call the script from browser

[Daniel15]

Thanks prisoner, I've correct my (stupid) mistake

[Basil Beard]

Wow. I just happened to read this and find that it actually doesn't avoid cron jobs. A cron job just calls a script daily. If you can't do that, what can you do? Well, why not simply run interest whenever someone visits the shop... it takes a few database querys, but nothing fancy. Note that this only works if your members are active. Someone needs to log-on to trigger it. You could be fancy, and have it find the number of days in between failed interest days, but that would be tricky with leap years. I wanna keep this simple

Ok. Open shop.php, find

Code: [Select]

    $context['page_title'] = $txt['shop'];
    $context['linktree'][] = array(
        'url' => "$scripturl?action=shop",
        'name' => $txt['shop'],
);
Below this is where we will code. The first thing to do is to check if it is a new day or not. The best way to do this is to create a column in the Settings database table, which records the last time someone collected interest. So insert a row into that table with variable = 'InterestDate' and value = 0.

now add this code

Code: [Select]

$date = date('z') //find the current date. Z is the day of the year it is.
$olddate = $modSettings['InterestDate'] //last date you got interest

if ($date != $olddate) // if they are equal, do nothing. If they are not equal, time to collect interest.
{
$interest_rate = $modSettings['shopInterest'] / 100;
db_query("UPDATE {$db_prefix}members
  SET moneyBank = moneyBank + (moneyBank*{$interest_rate})", __FILE__,  __LINE__); // This gives interst copied from daniels script, so it should work.

$result = db_query("UPDATE {$db_prefix}settings
                                     SET value = {$date}
                                     WHERE variable = 'InterestDate'", __FILE__, __LINE__); //update the last time interest was collected
}

And that it. I havn't tested it(its 11:30 PM right now), but it should work. If not, just give me the error you get and I will try to fix it.

[Daniel15]

Nice suggestion Basil Beard  

Wow. I just happened to read this and find that it actually doesn't avoid cron jobs. A cron job just calls a script daily. If you can't do that, what can you do?

  Well, I meant, if you don't have access to cron jobs on your server  

[jdv]

Is the new shop version 2.3 suppose to calculate bank interest on its own? I noticed its not and i have to force the bank int everyday. Also noticed it only likes whole number like 1 or 2, and wont take 0.02

Let me know if im doing it wrong or if you have a suggestion. Greatly appreciate.

John