Large mailing list

[delamitri]

Hi all,

OK my turn for a daunting question.

I have a mysql table of email addresses 520+ and growing.

Is there a way of emailing these people as a seperate process from the script? I know its like "fork(.." in Perl, but does anyone know a solution to this script taking an age to run, and possibly bombing out?

Tanks in ad vans
(or thanks in advance)!

Kevin

[[deleted]]

Why not just use email-list software?
I keep reading questions about people wanting to set up mailing lists (sometimes for questionable purposes🙂 )
but all this work has been done already by others,
look at "listserv" or "majordomo".

They often have simple configuration files that you can edit (using php for example) and have the list server software handle the emailing.

[delamitri]

Why use other peoples when you get much more satisfaction writing your own?

I don't want to be dependant on what other people have decided to put in to a program, no matter how great it is. I want to have scripts written for the sole purpose I need them for, and thats often a better idea than trying to work someone elses script for the same purpose.

When a problem like this Ive got at the moment comes along, it stumbles you, but it also will make you a better programmer because guaranteed you wont forget it next time :-)

[brandonschnell]

have a web page for the user to view status and start the emailing. to start the emailing call another email script like so:

exec("/usr/local/bin/php /home/httpd/html/email_script.php > /dev/null 2>&1 &");

this will start it and won't tie up the current running php script.

next, in your email_script.php query the database like normal and send the email.

i use a table for a list of the emails to be sent and another for a log. by getting the number of sent verus unsent msg you can tell the user the status. record any errors to the log db and even maybe dump a log of the session to the log db because if your email_script.php fails php won't tell you.

[delamitri]

fantastic. this is the kind of response i was looking for - going to try it now !

Many thanks

Kevin Cawthorne

[Anon]

My motive for wanting to do this in PHP is that I rent space from an ISP which will not let me run an executable on their servers. Also, listserv and majordomo do not work with POP3 I think?

[[deleted]]

POP3 is note really relevant, that is just an interface so you can retreive your mail easier. Listservers don't use that, they just receive mail and send mail.

Anyway, it would be wise to ask your ISP wether they can get a listserv engine or similar up and running for all their customers, saves everybody a lot of money, and a ton of headaches about re-inventing the wheel in PHP.