Php batch jobs| windows and others

rxs0569

Hi All

I need advise on how to solve this particular problem on a windows/Apache/php 4.3.2 installation.

My App posts data using HTTP post to a number of servers (ranging from 1 to 500). A user fills a HTML form that should trigger some batch job. This batch job will post data to these servers and produce a result.

So i started out with php. Here are my questions

How can i run a batch job in the back ground and immediately return to the user after they have filled the form. I used shell_exec but the script never returns until the batch job is complete. I also face numerous default script time out problems. Ideally i would like to return to the user immediately and then start the batch job in the background and produce a result that the user can come and view later
I used curl to post date to these servers. What are your recommendation on this library. I haven't tested it with large no of servers. Can curl handle it.

Thanks

Raj

AstroTeg

CURL should be able to handle it. I've used it for all sorts of crazy stuff and it has worked great.

As for launching background processes, you might try this:

$cmd = 'start /D [startup directory of your choice] /B [command/application or batch file to execute]';
pclose(popen($cmd, "r"));

That code will launch your process in the background and will allow your PHP code to keep moving along. I use it with some of my scripts so the user isn't waiting for a long query to finish.

rxs0569

Thanks

Can you elaborate on what /D and /B does.

How about if you want two way control.. basically feedback and argument from the user fed to the shell and then the out put returned and the process continues

AstroTeg

check out start /? - easiest way to figure out what's going on (I don't remember exactly off the top of my head, but when I put that together, I used /?).

As for real-time interactivey, that completely defeats batch processing.

Yes, you can pass parameters, but they would have to be parameters you pass on the command line. It will depend on how your program wants its parameters formatted on the command line. Then you'll need to get creative and determine how the program's output will make it back to the user.