Continue processing php after sending http response

Question

My script is called by the server. I will receive ID_OF_MESSAGE and TEXT_OF_MESSAGE from the server.

In my script, I will process the incoming text and generate a response using the parameters: ANSWER_TO_ID and RESPONSE_MESSAGE.

The problem is that I'm sending a response to the incoming "ID_OF_MESSAGE", but the server that sends me the message for processing sets its message to delivered to me (which means So I can send his response to that ID) after receiving http response 200.

One solution is to save the message to a database and create some cron that runs every minute, but I need the response message to be generated immediately.

Is there some solution how to send to server http response 200 and continue executing php script?

Thank you very much

Answer 1

Yes. You can do this:

ignore_user_abort(true);//not required
set_time_limit(0);

ob_start();
// do initial processing here
echo $response; // send the response
header('Connection: close');
header('Content-Length: '.ob_get_length());
ob_end_flush();
@ob_flush();
flush();
fastcgi_finish_request();//required for PHP-FPM (PHP > 5.3.3)

// now the request is sent to the browser, but the script is still running
// so, you can continue...

die(); //a must especially if set_time_limit=0 is used and the task ends