I would like a user to enter text into an HTML textbox, and have that data be Automatically saved to MySQL every 10 minutes, etc.


Not asking you to code this for me, just wondering how it would work.

For instance: if "sally loves joe" was entered into a textbox and saved to MySQL, would an adequate script require that the code flush the data previously stored before storing the newly saved data in it's place?

If I'm understanding correctly you'd need to use ajax to submit the data. From there it would be up to whether or not to replace the data previously stored or to create another row.

Wordpress does something like this; if you're writing a post it will be saved periodically. In this particular case, every time the data is saved a new row is inserted.

o, i have suffered the same problem as you, but i do not find the best method. need help!

i am looking for the solution too, but did fond it yet

Originally Posted by NullPointer

Wordpress does something like this; if you're writing a post it will be saved periodically.

This is exactly what came to mind.


I've never worked with AJAX, looks like now is the time to learn.

Use AJAX and Javascript to call a PHP script every 10 minutes and send the value of the textarea to the PHP script (GET), the PHP script then takes the data and replaces the current value in the MySQL table with the new one.

You should use AJAX along with window.setInterval and some server side PHP scripting. Draft outline of the process using jQuery:

<form id="form1">
    <textarea name="text1"></textarea>
</form>
<script type="text/javascript">
    window.setInterval(function () {
        jQuery.post("save-draft.php", $("#form1").serialize(););
    }, 10 * 60 * 1000);
</script>

Inside the "save-draft.php" script you will have access to all form elements including "text1". Use a MySQL update query to update the draft.