That doesn't sound like a CGI program to me.

I think that you need a Perl script which uses LWP to grab the data from the web page and puts it in the database using DBI/DBD. You'd then set up a cron job to run your script periodically.

No CGI there at all.

"Perl makes the fun jobs fun
and the boring jobs bearable" - me

An alternative for win xx users:

$five_mins = 300; 
while(not $exit_condition) {
    # Run LWP code here

    sleep($five_mins);
}
[download]

On WINNT you can use their AT command to schedule programs to run. I've used it for automating cron-type jobs and it works reasonably well.

Simply type  

    at/?
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in your DOS/command window to get more information.
Mick

• You are trying to suck data from the web to a local database for offline viewing (Quote: Retrieve the stock quotes from a web page and form a database) If you want to do this you have a few alternatives, take a look at HTTP client in perl a recient discussion that describes how to do this. You could also have a look at wget, a stand alone application. You will find wget at freshmeat
• You are trying to provide a web page that refreshes itself to show the latest information take a look at netscapes page on dynamic documentation here specifically it talks about server push and client pull methods for dynamic web content. The example it gives quote:

  The general idea is that browsers have always been driven by user input. You click on a link or an icon or an image and some data comes to you. As soon as people saw they could do that, they wanted to give a server the ability to push new data down to the browser. (An obvious example is a stock trader who wants to see new quote data every 5 minutes.) Up until now, that hasn't been possible.

 while (1==1)  {  # Loop forever
  sleep 60*10;   # do nothing for 10 minutes

  # <- insert LWP web page stuff here ->
 {
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while (1=1) {

Can't modify constant item in scalar assignment at ./test.pl line 1, n
+ear "1) "
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Did you mean just

while (1) {
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--
<http://www.dave.org.uk>

"Perl makes the fun jobs fun
and the boring jobs bearable" - me

Thanks for spotting my typo.
I suppose your variation is just as good but TMTOWTDI stikes again with whats familiar for me.

- maintain a database of stock symbols, quotes, and the last time retrieved.
- on each GGI request for a quote, retrieve the quote from the database. If it is not available or the last time retrieved is older than the max freshness time (say, five minutes), grab the quote from the external host and update the database.

This will ensure that application supplies the latest quotes (within five minutes) while avoiding unnecessary requests for quotes.

The program would have to be consistently running (as a service maybe?) to execute at various times. Why not use a scheduler in your operating system such as the windows AT command to kick off your program?

-OzzyOsbourne

When you work with sensitive information you can not let yourself do this

-- tune