Trying to start mail process, then redirect user

smith15

I have a page where a user can select a newsletter to send and it takes about 10-15 seconds to send the emails. So what i'd like to do is let them fire off the email, then be redirected (or something) back to the main page while the email process is now running on the server.

I don't them to have to wait for the process to finish.

I tried adding a HEADER location redirect on that mail process page but it waits until the mailing is finished before it'll redirect.

Any ideas on how to better accomplish this?

mmilano

here's a possibility, ..

use a popup window to run your mail script, .. then when the mail is finished generating, .. execute an auto-close script.

i found this code. it would be cool to display an animated gif as a progress bar while it is happening. it's just a theory here.

index.php

<html>

<head>
<script language="javascript">
<!--
function ShowMenu(URL, WinTitle, WinWidth, WinHeight, WinLeft, WinTop){
	attr = "resizable=no,width=" + WinWidth + ",height=" + WinHeight + ",screenX=" + WinLeft + ",screenY=" + WinTop + ",left=" + WinLeft + ",top=" + WinTop + "";
	msgWindow=open(URL, WinTitle, attr);
	if (msgWindow.opener == null) msgWindow.opener = self;
}
//-->
</script>


</head>
<body>

<a href="javascript:ShowMenu('popup.php','window1',160,100,2,95)">Click Here to send newsletter</a>

</body>
</html>

popup.php

<?
function sendNewsLetter()
{
  // all the mail code goes here
  return 1
}

if(sendNewsLetter())
{

echo "<html>

<head>
<script language=\"javascript\">
<!--
function ShowMenu(URL, WinTitle, WinWidth, WinHeight, WinLeft, WinTop){
	attr = \"resizable=no,width=\" + WinWidth + \",height=\" + WinHeight + \",screenX=\" + WinLeft + \",screenY=\" + WinTop + \",left=\" + WinLeft + \",top=\" + WinTop + \"\";
	msgWindow=open(URL, WinTitle, attr);
	if (msgWindow.opener == null) msgWindow.opener = self;
}
//-->
</script>


</head>
<body>";
}
else
{
  echo "failed";
}

<a href="javascript:ShowMenu('popup.html','window1',160,100,2,95)">Click Here</a>

</body>
</html>

smith15

I did the pop-up window thing which also simulates progress by doing a flush() and outputting "..." every so often.

However, the main window which opened the pop-up, will not redirect or do anything until the pop-up has finished processing. Which in this case could be minutes.

How can I "release" this main window from the pop-up so it basically just calls the pop-up window, then exits to it's own page, etc?

Is this possible?