Automatically updated server variable with Frontend output

[Chris3]

Hi,
Sorry I searched so much but got no answer in the www. I need to do the following (simplified):

1. Define a variable with init value (e.g. 500)
2. Make a calculation each day and alter the variable (eg. add 100)
3. Display that variable in the frontend in elementor

It seems so easy, but in detail I struggle a lot. My idea was to a define a global variable in functions.php, add a cron job with calls a function each day in functions.php. Then add a shortcode to a function that returns the global variable and insert that shortcode into elementor. All works but not the alter of the variable. I miss something fundamental I think, as I am a newbie…

global $clients;
$clients = 500;

function cron_update() {
global $clients;
$clients += 100;
}
function get_clients() {
global $clients;
return $clients;
}
add_shortcode(‘GETCLIENTS’, ‘get_clients’);

I always get 500 as a result. Also after several cron jobs. I think the functions.php is called on each pageload so the init of the var is overwritten each time. How can I avoid that?

I also tried:

if (!isset($clients)){
global $clients;
$clients = 500;
}

but it seems also that it does it on each reload. So how can I define real global variables which stays intact?

I tried with GLOBALS but also no success…

Thank you,
Chris

[skawid]

PHP code itself isn’t persistent; you’ll need to store the number (in a file or the database for example) if you want it to persist.

You might not need to though. If you just want to show a higher number every day, you can do it as follows:

// Your initial value
$start_number = 500;

// your increment
$increment_by = 100;

// The date on which your counter starts
$start_date = new DateTime('2021-02-18');

$time_since_start = $start_date->diff(new DateTime);

$current_value = 500 + $time_since_start->days * $increment_by;

$current_value will now be 500, plus 100 more for every day that passes after today.

[Chris3]

hey thank you so much! You saved my day. Puhhh!
You are right with calculating the number based on the date but this was a simplified problem. At the end I need to do calculations based on the current number. So how can I store that in the database? Is there some sort of CONSTANTs table or so in Wordpress?

[skawid]

You want the options API.

[Chris3]

Thank you skawid. Great support…