How to run a helper function multiple times for checking live results from the DB

Question

I have a forum project with Laravel 9, and I have made this helper function.

if(!function_exists('new_question')){
    function new_question($c) {
        $quelist = \DB::table('questions')->get();
        $quecount = $quelist->count();
        if($quecount > $c){
            return 'A new question is added.. please refresh the page..';
        }
    }
}

So it gets the number of current questions like this:

{{ new_question($queCnt); }}

And then, it will check if the $quecount equals $queCnt or not. And if not, then print the statement A new question is added.. please refresh the page... Therefore the user will understand if any new question is added. But I need to run this helper function after some periods of time (for example, 10 seconds). However, I don't know how to call a function after a custom amount of time.

Answer 1

First, you have to figure out if the number of "content" has changed. Using Laravel, create a function that is accessible through a route, this function would return the number of posts, then, using javascript, you will call that function in an interval (example is 5 seconds) and if the number has changed since the last call, then there's new posts, so you should do some DOM manipulation to update your page to alert the user.

Your server side function would be simple, something like this:

function count_questions() {
        $quelist = DB::table('questions')->get();
        $quecount = $quelist->count();
        $response = array('quecount' => $quecount);
        echo json_encode($response);
    }

Then, identify how to reach this function through your routing table, and use the below jquery functions:

    var quecount = 0;
    $(document).ready(function() {
        setInterval(function() {
            $.ajax({
                // change this URL to your path to the laravel function
                url: 'questions/count',
                type: 'GET',
                dataType: 'json',
                success: function(response) {
                    // if queuecount is 0, then set its initial value to quecount
                    if(quecount == 0){
                        quecount = response.quecount;
                    }
                    if(response.quecount > quecount){
                        quecount = response.quecount;
                        new_question_found();
                    }
                }
            });
        }, 5000);
    });
    function new_question_found(){
        $("#new_questions").html("New questions found");
    }