script stopping for no apparent reason

[mechew]

I'm working on debugging a script for someone and it basically grabs companies from a database, and generates pdf reports for each company.

There are 232 companies on file and it randomly stops functioning. Sometimes it will create 4 pdf files sometimes 2 of the same request. I have error reporting on but it doesnt show any errors that would terminate the script. I checked the memory usage and it seems to stop when it gets between 5 and 6 megs, but I increased the max memory to 32 and the timeout to 900 seconds and it dies after about 5 min.

I've chosen to break the script up to reload for each company and it seems to work except for the fact that I'm using a meta refresh tag to reload the page with new request variables to tell it to start where it left off. but sometimes I random connection errors.

so I'd like to know is there a way to have the script close and reopen passing variables along? this would make sure the script doesnt terminate for what ever reason it is, and i dont need to rely on the browser to connect and pass new variables along.

[mechew]

oh, and i can't use header because i've already set cookies, you can't pass request values with header, and i would prefer to have the server do this with out a browser to keep the connection alive.

so basically i want, what was basically 1 script running 232 queries and creating 232 pdf files, to run 1 query create 1 pdf file then run another script taking over where it left off. but it can't be linked because i think its too memory intensive.

[kkobashi]

Ideally, the process shouldn't stop and continue going on. If you are using PHP 5, you should be able to take advantage of exceptions. If you aren't, then to me error/return values aren't being checked appropriately.

mysql connect
mysql select database table
mysqlquery get all companies
mysql fetch {

pull out data items
assemble them
pass off to PDF converter to generate file

}

mysql close

At each stage, you must check to see if an error occurred. If there was an error, report it and then move to the next record. If it is crapping out, you will need to trace what's going on with debugging statements.

Here's a simple debug class that you can use to insert into the application and store output at different execution points in the program. This way you can capture the thread of execution and then debug to help pinpoint where it is crapping out:

class DebugFile {
  var $output;

  function DebugFile() {
    $this->output = "";
  }
  function AddLine($str) {
    $this->output .= date("F d Y H:i:s", time()) . " " . $str . "\n";
  }
  function Save() {
    file_put_contents("debug.txt", $this->output, FILE_APPEND | FILE_TEXT | FILE_EX);
  }
  function Show() {
    echo $this->output;
  }
  function ShowHtml() {
    echo nl2br($this->output);
  }
}
?>

For example (pseudo code), I imagine the application has some sort of algorithm structure similar to that below. You could do the following in the main heart of the program:

$dbg = new DebugFile();

mysql connect
mysql select database table
mysqlquery get all companies
mysql fetch each company {

$companyName = $data['company'];
$dbg->AddLine("Execution point 1: " . $companyName . "\n");
$dbg->Save(); // just in case it craps out before

pull out data items from record

$dbg->AddLine("Execution point 2: " . $companyName . "\n");
$dbg->Save(); // just in case it craps out before

assemble them to form document

$dbg->AddLine("Execution point 3: " . $companyName . "\n");
$dbg->Save(); // just in case it craps out before

pass off document string to PDF converter to generate file

$dbg->AddLine("Execution point 4: " . $companyName . "\n");
$dbg->Save(); // just in case it craps out before
}

mysql close

$dbg->ShowHtml();