General - Check database interval?

Hey guys, am a new member here, Im working on making a foruma nd all is going great, just a few thing to ask.

I have built my site in asp classic and whats the best way to check a database at regular intervals? It would be for the messages database and would need to execute as the user browses the site...

I know javascript (interval) has some ways of doing this, but doesnt really connect with mysql.

any ideas?

In my opinion, using the client to do anything a 'regular intervals' is not a good idea. What if there are no clients accessing the site at the moment? What if there are 300? You are not specific as to what you mean by 'check a database', but the best way to do something at a regular interval would be a stored procedure that is scheduled on the SQL Server.

just a simple count(messages) query to let the user know that they have messages....

Ah...just wanted to make sure you weren't talking about doing something like having the db scrub data and send e-mail's every 5 minutes or something like that.

The quick answer here I think is AJAX. An excellent example of using AJAX with a database query is found here . The only problem I can see is sending the userid via the query string might pose a security hole.

i was originally goign to say i looks too complex, but seeing it now, i think i might even be able to manage it, and see your point about the security too thanks! much appreciated!