PHP - How To Use Micro Time Efficiently And Correctly?

I'm interested to know how other people keep track of time and also how they display time correctly back to the users. I'm using a third party API that I can tie into that actually gives me the userID of a user, their full name and the timezone for that user. After checking a few users data, this is an example data of what I'm working with.

userID: 234213412
first_name: foo
last_name: bar
timezone: -6

Basically when a user visits my web app, I create a new account for them and store the above data. Currently, I'm just fetching the result from time() and converting it into MySQL DateTime format and storing that into my database.

Code: [Select]
//get the current time as an integer
$php_timestamp = time();
//formats the time according to MySQL DateTime type
$this->mysql_formatted_time = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $php_timestamp);

I would think the current way that I'm doing this is not very good because there is a possibility that I could introduce load balancing servers into the mix and they might not be located in the same region. Also, I would have no idea how to factor the time and modify it according to the timezone value.(in my above example, -6)

Can anyone help me decide what method I should use to keep all of my servers timestamps in sync and how to display the time to the end user so that it looks correct to them?

I'll start by apologizing for the stupid decision that led to this question.  A few years ago, I created a PHP/Myysql site with a login system and I created a field in the MySQL called "password" and it stored literally the exact password people entered (I know, I know).   The site has proven to have nice traffic potential, so I am going to re-vamp everything, including storing passwords properly (i.e. hashed).   My first question... Is there a way to convert regular text passwords to hashed passwords?  For example, I could create a new field in the "User" table for "hashedpassword" and write a script that takes all the insecure passwords and turns them into hashed passwords.  Then deleted the previous "bad" password field from the database.  This would allow me to do it without the customer every knowing anything changed.    Quick googling appears to support that it IS doable rather easily, with something like...

UPDATE mytable
SET password = MD5(password)

If not, I guess I would have to create a thing where the first time omeone logged in after I put hashing in place, the site would force them to change their password. I'd rather not annoy the visitors if it all possible.   Second question, what is the proper/recommended hashing method to use?   Some people seem to poo-poo MD5.  If you agree, should I use:   MD5 SHA MD5 with a salt SHA with a salt Something else i never heard of   NOTE:  My site is a fantasy sports site, so the data involved is not overly important.  Maybe a salt is overkill?  Or is being overly safe never a bad thing?   Lastly, don't need to address this, but if anyone can explain it like I'm 5 that would be great because i must be missing something... if you can easily turn a regular password into a hashed password, couldn't hackers easily do the reverse, which would render the hashing almost useless?  I get that salting helps, but before salting (i.e. doing ONLY MD5), I don't see how hashing helped that much (if you could reverese figure out the password).  What am I missing?   Thanks! Greg
Edited by galvin, 13 November 2014 - 09:44 AM.

Since I'm new to programming I still don't know how to solve problems the most efficient way, I'd like to have your advice on this one. This is how I solved it and it works.

I have my categories as input buttons (I'm planning to change it into a drop down menu later).


Sort by Category:
<form action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>" method="post"> 
<input type='submit' name='All' value='All' />
<input type='submit' name='Smileys' value='Smileys' />
<input type='submit' name='Faces' value='Faces' />
<input type='submit' name='Love' value='Love' />
</form>


When the input boxes are clicked the corresponding script below is being run, very simple and to a point primitive, definitely not really efficient, because if you have a lot of categories you'll end up with a lot of code and if you wanted to change one thing you'd have to change it in all the IF BLOCKS. Basically every input button has its own IF BLOCK.


<?php
if (isset($_POST['All']) OR (!isset($_POST['Smileys']) && !isset($_POST['Faces']) && !isset($_POST['Love']) {
// Connect to the database 
  $dbc = mysqli_connect(DB_HOST, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, DB_NAME);
  
  // Retrieve the score data from MySQL
  $query = "SELECT * FROM asciiart";
  $data = mysqli_query($dbc, $query);

  
   // Loop through the array of score data, formatting it as HTML 
   while ($row = mysqli_fetch_array($data)) { 
  echo '<table class="asciiartTable">';
 // Display the score data
    echo '<tr><td class="asciiart_name">';
    echo '<strong>' . htmlentities($row['asciiart_name']) . '</strong><br /></td></tr>';
echo '<tr><td class="asciiart_contribution"><pre>' . htmlentities($row['asciiart_contribution']) . '</pre><br /></td></tr>';
echo '<tr><td class="asciiart_categoryDate">' . htmlentities($row['asciiart_category']) . ' | ' . date('M d, Y', strtotime

($row['created_date'])) . ' </td></tr>';

echo '</table>';
    }
   mysqli_close($dbc);
   
}

if (isset($_POST['Smileys'])) {
// Connect to the database 
$dbc = mysqli_connect(DB_HOST, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, DB_NAME);

// Retrieve the chosen category from MySQL
$query2 = "SELECT * FROM asciiart WHERE asciiart_category = 'Smileys'";
$data2 = mysqli_query($dbc, $query2);

//Loop through the array of data
while ($row2 = mysqli_fetch_array($data2)) {
  echo '<table class="asciiartTable">';

// Display the score data
    echo '<tr><td class="asciiart_name">';
    echo '<strong>' . htmlentities($row2['asciiart_name']) . '</strong><br /></td></tr>';
echo '<tr><td class="asciiart_contribution"><pre>' . htmlentities($row2['asciiart_contribution']) . '</pre><br 

/></td></tr>';
echo '<tr><td class="asciiart_categoryDate">' . htmlentities($row2['asciiart_category']) . ' | ' . date('M d, Y', strtotime

($row2['created_date'])) . ' </td></tr>';

echo '</table>';
    }
   mysqli_close($dbc);
}

if (isset($_POST['Faces'])) {
// Connect to the database 
$dbc = mysqli_connect(DB_HOST, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, DB_NAME);

// Retrieve the chosen category from MySQL
$query3 = "SELECT * FROM asciiart WHERE asciiart_category = 'Faces'";
$data3 = mysqli_query($dbc, $query3);

//Loop through the array of data
while ($row3 = mysqli_fetch_array($data3)) {
  echo '<table class="asciiartTable">';

// Display the score data
    echo '<tr><td class="asciiart_name">';
    echo '<strong>' . htmlentities($row3['asciiart_name']) . '</strong><br /></td></tr>';
echo '<tr><td class="asciiart_contribution"><pre>' . htmlentities($row3['asciiart_contribution']) . '</pre><br 

/></td></tr>';
echo '<tr><td class="asciiart_categoryDate">' . htmlentities($row3['asciiart_category']) . ' | ' . date('M d, Y', strtotime

($row3['created_date'])) . ' </td></tr>';

echo '</table>';
    }
   mysqli_close($dbc);
}

if (isset($_POST['Love'])) {
// Connect to the database 
$dbc = mysqli_connect(DB_HOST, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, DB_NAME);

// Retrieve the chosen category from MySQL
$query4 = "SELECT * FROM asciiart WHERE asciiart_category = 'Love'";
$data4 = mysqli_query($dbc, $query4);

//Loop through the array of data
while ($row4 = mysqli_fetch_array($data4)) {
  echo '<table class="asciiartTable">';

// Display the score data
    echo '<tr><td class="asciiart_name">';
    echo '<strong>' . htmlentities($row4['asciiart_name']) . '</strong><br /></td></tr>';
echo '<tr><td class="asciiart_contribution"><pre>' . htmlentities($row4['asciiart_contribution']) . '</pre><br 

/></td></tr>';
echo '<tr><td class="asciiart_categoryDate">' . htmlentities($row4['asciiart_category']) . ' | ' . date('M d, Y', strtotime

($row4['created_date'])) . ' </td></tr>';

echo '</table>';
    }
   mysqli_close($dbc);
}


My question is: is there a way to have just one block of script and the script automatically inserts the right INPUT BUTTON into the query in the script?


Something similar to this, even though it doesn't work I'm just showing it for showcase purposes:


if (isset($_POST['Smileys']) || (isset($_POST['Faces']) || (isset($_POST['Love'])) {
// Connect to the database 
$dbc = mysqli_connect(DB_HOST, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, DB_NAME);

// Retrieve the chosen category from MySQL
$query2 = "SELECT * FROM asciiart WHERE asciiart_category = 'Smileys' || 'Faces' || 'Love'";
$data2 = mysqli_query($dbc, $query2); 



Notice in the query, it is looking for THAT keyword that has been PRESSED on the INPUT BUTTON.

How would I be able to create a logic like this so I can create a whole chain of categories?


Thanks for advice.

I'm hoping to get a little feedback on what you all believe is the best way to handle this efficiently in PHP. I am working on a script that imports a large amount of data from remote feeds; this facilitates the quick deployment of real estate web sites, but has to download a large number of images to each new site.

Assuming for right now that the bottleneck isn't in the method (fsock vs curl vs...) and that for each imported listing we're spending between .89439 and 17.0601 seconds on the image import process alone... what would you suggest for handling this over the space of 100-1000 occurrences?

As of right now I have two ideas in mind, both fairly rudimentary in nature. The first idea is to shut the script down every 30-45 seconds, sleep for a second and fire off another asynchronous request to start the script again. The second idea is to fire off a new asynchronous to run the image imports separate from the main script. This would let the efficient ones clear out rather quickly while the slower imports would have their own process to run in. The only thing that worries me about this is the fact that 100 of these could be fired off every second. Even assuming half of them complete before the next round are fired off, they would still pile up.

PHP date and time function is not showing correct time on my local system

I have the following php code

date_default_timezone_set("Africa/Lagos");

$date = date('d-m-y h:i:s');

echo "Server Time ".$date ."<br>";

echo "The time is " . date("h:i:sa")."<br>";

$current_datetime = date("Y-m-d") . ' ' . date("H:i:s", STRTOTIME(date('h:i:sa')));

echo "Current time1: ".$current_datetime . "<br>";

 

Output

Server Time 21-05-21 09:55:39
The time is 09:55:39am
Current time1: 2021-05-21 09:55:39

 

Expected Output

Server Time 21-05-21 10:55:39
The time is 10:55:39am
Current time1: 2021-05-21 10:55:3

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Edited May 21 by Ponel