Posting a variable to a script without waiting for an answer

[iamkoby]

Hi !

 

I'm looking for hours for a way to call a script with a variable (it can be either GET or POST) but without waiting for the script to reply.

 

This script takes at least 7 seconds to respond so if i'm using file_get_contents I'm left with a suspend of 7+ seconds in my script.

 

I have NO interest in the response of that script since it returns nothing so how can I just call it, leaving it to work and continue in my own script ?

 

Your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[bobbinsbro]

do you want to make the call from another php file or from the client-side?

[iamkoby]

From another php file.

 

This is the flow:

 

User submits a form on the client side.

The php file (let's call it PHP1) receives the form and calls another script (PHP2). PHP2 builds a customized page for the submitted information and saves it in the database. This process takes 7+ seconds and returns nothing to PHP1.

PHP1 wait for PHP2 to finish (although PHP2 doesn't return anything) and that delays the user response too much.

I need PHP1 to get the form, send it (only two variables) to PHP2 and respond to the user: "Your details sent for compilation. You'll get a mail with a link when your page is ready.".

[bobbinsbro]

i think i would consider using AJAX for that. look up xmlhttprequest() in google. there are tons of tutorials laying around for this.

 

otherwise, i think that the windows version of php has an extension for working with multiple threads, but i know nothing about using it, and it's probably a much more difficult solution than the ajax.

[iamkoby]

I don't think you understood my question - AJAX is in the client side. I'm looking for asynchronous php requests made on the server - from one script to another.

[bobbinsbro]

right. sorry. here's what i found:

if you're web server is running on a *nix system (only *nix), php has a function called pcntl_fork() (look it up in the maual) for forking php processes to the background. it looks like this functionality is not compiled into php by default and you have to use a --enable-pcntl flag at compile.

 

what the function basically does, is copy the state of your current script to a new child process, and the child continues running from the line immediately after the function call. to make the child process run 1 thing and the parent another, you can do something like:

 

$pnID = pcntl_fork();

if ($pnID){ //since child only starts running from here, it wont have $pID initialized
   //parent code
}
else{
   //child code
}

 

i found a few tutorials that go into more detail:

http://www.electrictoolbox.com/article/php/process-forking/

http://immike.net/blog/2007/04/08/fork-php-and-speed-up-your-scripts/

http://www.welldonesoft.com/technology/articles/php/forking/

 

they're all more or less the same.

 

* note: one of the above tutorials recommends not to use this function for web server scripts, (maybe for security reasons?).

 

hope this is what you were looking for.