I have a db driven website on which I will need to run regular housekeeping tasks ie regularly email customers to remind them of their subscription status, when they need to pay again etc.
I could just write a housekeeping.asp page and run it every day to let it do its thing, but what if I'm not in the office every day?
We have a server that's on 24/7, and I could have a browser window open with the housekeeping.asp page on it, which could automatically refresh every x hours... but if anyone logs the Administrator off the server the browser window would no longer refresh and would cease to run the housekeeping tasks.
The most reliable way I can think of is to make the housekeeping tasks be triggered by visitors to the website, ie keep an Application variable with the last date/time the housekeeping was carried out, and if its due, run it.
The problem is whoever the unlucky visitor is would be penalised with some sort of delay. How much of a delay is there to send (say) 100 emails?
I can't be the first to want to do something like this, how do other people do it?
