Performance of mailing list

[Anon]

I need to mail users of my Web site on a regular basis. All their data are already in MySQL databases and I'd need those data to include them in the e-mails, so I need to stick with PHP instead of common mailing list softwares. I was just writing a piece of code that just SELECT the data from the database, e-mail address included, and the uses the mail() function in a while operation. It just struck me that having a few thousands of recipients I would bog down the server with such operation. Anyone has any comment on this from past experiences? Thank you in advance.

[amcgrath]

Well, if the bogging down is a big concern, you could try:

1. Create a mail_list_sent table with user_id and date_sent.

2. select from your user table (or whatever its called), including the user_id where the user_id is not in the mail_list_sent table where date_sent = whatever day you are sending, and limit the amount of rows returned.

3. Email the inf and update/insert into mail_list_sent.

4. Schedule the job to run on a timed basis.