Updating a record on a certain date

Question

Hi,
I have a little problem with updating a record on a certain
date specified in the same table.
OK so i have a table called 'users' and in that table i have
the following fields:
AdID
Username
AdStatus
AdStartDate
AdPeriod
(and a few more but i've listed the important ones here)
What i have done is, when a user places an AD, it inserts
into the table the user's username, the ad status (e.g. Active,
Suspended ect), the day on which the advert was placed, the period
the ad has been placed for (e.g 6 months, 1 yr, 2yr ect).
What i would like to do is to create an auntomatic function
that checks the date in the table, and see if it is 6 months, 1yr,
2yr old or whatever and if it is, update the status to suspended.
Problem is, i dont know how :(
I thought about adding a countdown script and when it reaches
Zero, run a stored procedure but i dont know anything about them.
Could somebody PLEASE help me this is driving me mad. I've
been trying all kinds of ways but no luck. Anyone with the 'know
how' that can point me in the right direction would be a BIG start.
I am using ASP.VB and MYSQL 5.
Thankyou in Advance,
Adam

Answer 1

muzicmistro wrote:
> What i have done is, when a user places an AD, it
inserts into the table the
> user's username, the ad status (e.g. Active, Suspended
ect), the day on which
> the advert was placed, the period the ad has been placed
for (e.g 6 months, 1
> yr, 2yr ect).
>
> I am using ASP.VB and MYSQL 5.
I can't help you with the ASP side of it, but since you're
using MySQL,
you could simplify your problem by adopting a different
approach. Add an
expiry_date column (DATETIME type) and use the MySQL
DATE_ADD() function
to insert the date on which the ad expires. If your minimum
period is
one month, you can simply use MONTH as the the period in
DATE_ADD, and
use a variable to change the number of months (e.g., 24 for 2
years).
INSERT INTO myTable (expiry_date, other_cols)
VALUES(DATE_ADD(NOW(), INTERVAL x MONTH), other_vals)
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/date-and-time-functions.html
Rather than have an active/expired column, just use the
expiry_date and
compare it with the current date. If it's greater, the ad is
still
active. If it's less, the ad has expired.
David Powers
Adobe Community Expert
Author, "Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8" (friends of ED)
http://foundationphp.com/