Auction Software

[denniswrenn]

Hello everybody,

I'm not really looking to make anything right now, but I'm curious as to how online auctions work...


Somebody puts something up for $50, the auction ends 7/4/01 6pm EST.
you bid $50
the auction ends at 7/4/01 6pm EST


How does the auction software know the auction ended? It surely doesn't wait for somebody to load the page...


Thanks,
Dennis

[scoutt]

well I would have to take a guess at it and it would go something like this....

found the mound run boys run, devil's in the house of the risen sun, chickens in the.... sorry got carried away


It problems keeps the time in a Database, so when the person selling an item gives it a time to start and time to end. Then when somebody loads the main page that shows all the items it probably queries the DB to see if todays date matches the date the user put in and compares/subtracts and lets the user know how many more days to go.

Then when the time is up it probably puts another variable in the DB to say that it is over so don't query it.

does that sound like what it should do.

[denniswrenn]

I know that, but how does it know when it's over?

Let's say you put an auction up, and somebody bid on it.. the auction goes off in two days, but nobody looks at the auction for three days. Yet , you receive an email by the auction site in two days...

[scoutt]

maybe when the autions ends it triggers another script and it sends the email, it could also be that thye have a program that is running all the time checking on scripts that end.

I am just shooting the moon here, I have no idea but I will check in on it.

[denniswrenn]

Originally posted by scoutt
maybe when the autions ends it triggers another script and it sends the email, it could also be that thye have a program that is running all the time checking on scripts that end.

I am just shooting the moon here, I have no idea but I will check in on it.

It sounds feasible(statement #2), but I'll do a lil' more research too....

[scoutt]

I was looking into one of the auction scripts in php and found this

· How and when do I have to run the cron.php script?
cron.php is responsable for closing expired auctions, determine if there's a winner and send notification e-mails to seller and (eventually) to the winner.
For your site to reflect a "real" situation you should run cron frequently, let's say every 5 minutes (or less).
Under *nix systems this can be easily done setting a cron job which executes cron.php.
If you are not familiar with cronjob you may want to read the following: What is a cronjob, and how do I use it?

seems that I was almost right

[denniswrenn]

Thanks...

Probably would have been a bit more interesting if they would've named the file blow.php.... If I had the .job file submitted by users, I would expect several blow.job's by experienced persons....

[scoutt]

I here ya there

to bad I can't get my old lady to do that every 5 minutes, let alone once a day.

[denniswrenn]

Every five minutes? But she would have to start again before she even finished....

[scoutt]

well isn't that the idea

beside that's why I married her, joking