Question

I am new to using ajax but have been using PHP for awhile. I am curious on how to combine the two.

I have a PHP script on my website that takes awhile to loud because it is performing multiple iterations and many functions.

I want to somehow develop like an ajax script that tells the location of the script. There is one variable throughout the script that is like a progress meter. Somehow I want the text to change every time that variable changes.

Is this possible if so how?

Help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

You can save the current progress meter state in a file, ram cache or database and write another script that just returns this state. Then you implement AJAX that retrieves this information and then start a new ajax request and so on until the progress is finished.
I’d suggest something like “long-lived HTTP connection” using AJAX. Pass the state in your ajax request and if the progress didn’t change in PHP, just sleep until it does.

Like this (state in %):

AJAX request: progress.php?state=0
AJAX response: state: 10
AJAX request: progress.php?state=10
-- on server side it is still 10%, so sleep the php progress until it changes and then reply
AJAX response: state: 11
....

And since there is a timeout for ajax request just start a new request once a request timed out.

I hope this is what you meant.