Question

I am looking for a way to start a function on form submit that would not leave the browser window waiting for the result.

Example:
User fills in the form and press submit, the data from the form via javascript goes to the database and a function in php that will take several seconds will start but I dont want the user to be left waiting for the end of that function. I would like to be able to take him to another page and leave the function doing its thing server side.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

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Thanks for all the replies…

I got the ajax part. But I cannot call ajax and have the browser move to another page.

This is what I wanted.

-User fills form and submits
-Result from the form passed to database
-long annoying process function starts
-user carries on visiting the rest of the site, independent of the status on the “long annoying process function”

By the way and before someone suggests it. No, it cannot be done by cron job

Answer 1

Use AJAX to call the php script, and at the top of the script turn on ignore_ user_ abort.

ignore_user_abort(true);

That way if they navigate away from the page the script will continue running in the backround. You can also use

set_time_limit(0);

to set a time limit, useful if you know your script will take a while to complete.