How to put a time interval for same task in php

Question

I have an SMS app I want to set a time interval when the user sends SMS on a number then he needs to wait for 1 hour or any time interval which will declare in script how to do it?

<?php //FILE: sms_api.php 
    function sendSMS($number, $message) { 
            $url = "example"; // Set your frontlinesms or frontlinecloud webconnection url here
            $secret = "secret"; // Set the secret here
            $request = array( 
                            'secret' => $secret, 
                            'message' => $message, 
                            'recipients' => array(array( 
                                    'type' => 'mobile', 
                                    'value' => $number 
                            ))
                    );  
            $req = json_encode($request);
            $ch = curl_init( $url );  
            curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-Type:application/json')); 
            curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POST, true );  
            curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $req );  
            curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true );  
            $result = curl_exec($ch); 
            curl_close($ch);
            return split(',',$result); 
    }
    ?>

    <?php //FILE: index.php 
    include 'sms_api.php'; 
    $number = '+123456789'; 
    $text = 'Hi There, how are you?'; 
    $sms_api_result = sendSMS($number, $text);
    // Check if SMS was sent. The $sms_api_result boolean indicates whether the API call was successful.
    // You can replace the code below with custom handling logic
    if ($sms_api_result[0] == 'OK') { 
    // Ok, SMS received by the API 
            echo 'The SMS was sent.'; 
    } 
    else { 
    // Failure, SMS was not sent 
    // In this example we display the response to identify the error 
            print_r($sms_api_result); 
    } 
    ?>

Answer 1

You can store the records in a database table. And Check for the mobile number at the time of sending sms. If he has sent sms in last hour you redirect him to a premium page or somewhere else. sleep will not work sleep will just increase the time it will take for your website to load.