Multithreading in PHP

Question

I am working on windows. I have built a twitter application using the twitter API which periodically checks for new tweets as well as allows users to update their status. I have written separate PHP files for reading (reader.php) and writing tweets (writer.php). The only problem is how do I periodically read the tweets. There are a few ways which I can think of -

1) Use a time-based job scheduler (like Cron) to periodically run the reader.php. How do I do this?

2) Use multithreading to run both reader and writer.php and use a timer function in reader.php

Suggestions?

Answer 1

Since you are working within Windows, you probably won't be able to use cron very easily. You can however, use the task scheduler. See this link for step-by-step instructions.

Answer 2

Another option is to use some kind of job queuing system. The Zend Server Job Queue has the ability to schedule recurring tasks. I use it on my site for an awful lot of stuff. Actually, a lot of what you are trying to do. It does periodic Twitter searches, processes relationships and such. I have a posting about how to use it at Do you queue? Introduction to the Zend Server Job Queue