Page freezing up if sending more than 3000 emails.

Arc

Hello. I have an email program that mass mails but if the list of addresses to mail to is over 3000-ish the page just hangs up and times out. I am not sure if it's my code or the server, but it seems as though the server should be able to handle such a small request.

I pull the email addresses out of the database and loop through them sending mail as each address is gotten. I'm Using MySQL.

Here is my code..


While ($ResultArray = mysql_fetch_array($Result)){
$Removed= "<font size=1><div align=center><br><br><b>To Be Removed From This Email List, Please Click <a href=\"http://www.website.com/admin/emailer/remove.php?ID=$ResultArray[1]\">Here</a></b></div></font><br>";
$Read= "<IMG SRC=\"http://www.website.com/admin/emailer/emailread.php?Email=$ResultArray[0]&ID=$ResultArray[1]&List=$selListName\" WIDTH=1 HEIGHT=1 ALT=\"\" BORDER=0>";
           $mail_to = $ResultArray[0];
		   $Header=$ResultArray3[0];
           $HeaderPath="http://www.website.com/admin/emailimages/".$Header;

$mail_body="<table width=500 cellpadding=5><tr><td>
<div align=\"center\"><img src=\"$HeaderPath\"></div>
</td></tr><tr><td>
 $Contents
</td></tr><tr><td>
  <div align=\"center\">$Footer</div>
</td></tr><tr><td>
  <div align=\"center\">$Removed</div>

  <div align=\"center\">$Read</div>
</td></tr></table>";

	   mail ($mail_to,$mail_subject,$mail_body, "From: $txtFrom\r\nContent-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\n");
}

I never see the success message because the page hangs up... Is there a better more effecient way to do this?

Thanks!😃

DeltaRho2K

Is this site hosted remonely y a third party company, or on one of your own computers locally? The reason I ask is because your web host may have something in place to prevent you from sending out (x) number of emails per session... My host does this at 3000 which is why I am asking...

Otherwise, you may have to consider adding a field to your table called "Sent" or something like that. Then rewrite your code to send the mail and update the Sent field in your table in each row. Then limit your select results to 2000 (or so).

Then write another loop which the above loop is nested in, which will rerun the above query until they are all marked as sent. (based on total rows/2000 so you know how many times to loop through the iteration.)

Lastly, once all mail is processed, update the Sent field in your table again (for all rows this time) to have them marked unsent so they are prepared for your next mass mailing.

I know this sounds a bit hokey, but it was a loophole that worked on my host...

Arc

Thanks for the reply, but i think my situation is different. The emails go thru but the DB isnt updated for like a few hours later and the page just times out and gives a 404 error or a server can not be found error instead of showing the success page.

SO basically it works, but it's not showing the success page, it times out. And for some reason the Database takes forever before it updates. I am updating Amount of Mails sent and stuff like that.

Weedpacket

It's not a good idea to use mail() for bulk mailouts anyway. (It involves making a connection with the mail server, doing all the paperwork for sending emails, sending the email, tidying up, and closing the connection. And then repeating.)

Better is if your script can talk to the mail server directly; then you have more control and can tell it in advance that you're going to be sending an email to multiple addresses. There are a number of such SMTP classes available and one of them may be more suitable for your task. Searching Google for PHP SMTP class (or classes) should turn a few up.

With one of those installed, the whole process would be a fair sight faster.

Arc

hmm I'll give that a look, thanks weed.😃