Question

I have a web application that currently sends emails. At the time my web applications sends emails (sending of emails is based on user actions – not automatic), it has to run other processes like zipping up files.

I am trying to make my application ‘future proof’ – so when there are a large number of users I don’t want the server strained, so i thought that putting the emails that need to be sent and the files that need to be zipped in a queue. Put them in table and then use a cron job to check every second and execute them (x rows at a time).

Is the above a good idea? Or is there a better approach? I really need help to get this done properly to save myself headaches later on 🙂

Thanks all

Answer 1

It’s a good approach, but the most important thing you can do right now is have a clear interface for queuing up the messages, and one for consuming the queue. Don’t make the usage on either end hard-coded to a DB.

Later on, if this becomes a bottleneck, you may want the mail sending to be done from a different machine which may not even have access to the DB, so this tiny investment up front will give you options later.