I need help figuring out the best approach for this problem. I want to set up an automated process on my web server that can perform tasks continuously without any user interaction. For instance, I might want it to send out notification emails at regular intervals or perform database cleanup operations every few minutes. The key requirement is that this should work entirely on the server side. I don’t want to rely on someone keeping a browser window open or manually triggering the process. My hosting provider is GoDaddy and I’m wondering what technologies or methods would make this possible. Can PHP handle this kind of continuous execution, or should I be looking at other solutions? I’m not asking for actual code right now, just want to understand what tools or approaches are available for creating these kind of background processes that run automatically on shared hosting.
curious about your specific use case - are we talking about tasks that need to run every few seconds or more like hourly/daily stuff? also whats your experience level with server management? some hosts offer different solutions depending on the plan you’re on.
i totally get that, shared hosting can be tricky. cron jobs are your best bet for scheduled tasks. just set up a cron that runs your script at intervals, it’s not perfect but gets the job done. and yeah, avoid long scripts or your host might not like it.
GoDaddy shared hosting typically supports cron jobs through their control panel, which handles most scheduled automation needs effectively. PHP works well for these tasks, but you need to structure scripts to complete quickly since shared hosts impose execution time limits. For database cleanup and email notifications, I’ve found success writing lightweight PHP scripts that process small batches of data per execution rather than attempting everything at once. The hosting environment will terminate long-running processes, so design your automation to work incrementally. Check your hosting plan’s cron job frequency limitations, as basic plans often restrict how frequently tasks can execute.