Return to Revisions

Two options:

1. Just as you said, a custom rules action:

    function MY_MODULE_rules_action_info() {
      return array(
        'MYMODULE_action_update_last_access' => array(
          'label' => t('Update last accessed timestamp'),
          'group' => t('Custom'),
          'parameter' => array(
            'account' => array(
              'type' => 'user',
              'label' => t('User'),
              'description' => t('User account whose last accessed timestamp will be updated.'),
            ),
          ),
        ),
      );
    }
   
    function MYMODULE_action_update_last_access($account) {
      // There might be another way to update the last accessed date, but you can
      // also do it directly in the database.
      //
      // NOTE: the code below will update the last access to current timestamp.
      // You could also do something like this, to get a random value in the last
      // 24 hours:
      //    $timestamp = rand(REQUEST_TIME - 24 * 60 * 60, REQUEST_TIME);
      $timestamp = REQUEST_TIME;
      // Update the data in database.
      db_update('users')
        ->fields(array('access' => $timestamp))
        ->condition('uid', $account->uid)
        ->execute();
    }
   

2. Use hook_cron() implementation in a custom module. This can be cleaner if you don't need to configure this more than once.

    function MYMODULE_cron() {
      // Decide how often you want to do this, e.g. daily, weekly, etc.
      // Below is an example for daily trigger..
      $last_updated = variable_get('MYMODULE_var_last_time_access_updated', NULL);
      if (!$last_updated || $last_updated != format_date(REQUEST_TIME, 'custom', 'z')) {
        // Define user IDs which need to be updated.
        $accounts_to_update = array(1, 2, 3);
        // Update them.
        foreach ($accounts_to_update as $account_to_update) {
          // See #1 above; I'll use a random timestamp in last 12 hours this time.
          $timestamp = rand(REQUEST_TIME - 12 * 60 * 60, REQUEST_TIME);
          // Execute the query.
          db_update('users')
            ->fields(array('access' => $timestamp))
            ->condition('uid', $account_to_update)
            ->execute();
        }
      }
    }