Seeing how long we’ve taken to decide if we do more

At the start of the operation

  $OurStartTime = microtime(true);

Checking how long has elapsed

  //CHECK FOR ENOUGH TIME LEFT TO DO ... (php.ini will default limit to 30 seconds!)
  $OurTimeNow = microtime(true);
  $ElapsedSeconds = $OurTimeNow - $OurStartTime;
  if ($ElapsedSeconds < 12)
  {
  }