AsyncTask.PHP

This library helps you plan, start, and follow the progress of time-consuming tasks in PHP.

Concept

• A task is composed of several steps.
• The progress is the % of steps completed.
• Steps are closures.
• When start() is called on a task, an entirely new PHP process is spawned.

Example

The following example is a web page that:

• If no task_id parameter is given in the URL: creates an Asynchronous task, and then starts it.
• If a task_id parameter is present in the query string: shows the progress in % of steps completed of the associated task.

The task is configured to be automatically deleted from the persistence layer when done.

<?php
require_once('AsyncTask.PHP/src/bootstrap.php');

if (isset($_GET['task_id'])) {
    $identifier = $_GET['task_id'];

    $task = AsyncTask::get($identifier);
    echo "Progress: {$task->getProgress()}\n";
    
    if ($task->isDone()) {
      echo "Done executing task.\n";
    }
    
    exit;
}

// If no task_id was passed as a parameter, define and start the task
$task = new AsyncTask();
$task->addStep(function() {
    echo "Begin step 1\n";
    sleep(5);
    echo "End step 1\n";
})->addStep(function() {
    echo "Begin step 2\n";
    sleep(5);
    echo "End step 2\n";
})->addStep(function() {
    echo "Begin step 3\n";
    sleep(5);
    echo "End step 3\n";
});
// Delete the temporary file at the end of the execution
$task->autoDelete();

// Start the task asynchronously and echo the task identifier to the console
echo $task->start();

echo "\n";

Licensing

This software is released under the MIT License.

Troubleshooting

• The system function MUST be enabled
• The script is relying on files written in the /tmp directory (or the system default temporary directory if /tmp doesn't exist). Some distributions using systemd are executing services inside a temporary directory sandbox that creates isolated folders inside the /tmp directory for each service. This system must be disabled to get AsyncTask.PHP to work. If using systemd, you must disable the PrivateTmp clause of the PHP service.

Example (/usr/lib/systemd/system/php-fpm.service):

[Unit]
...

[Service]
...
PrivateTmp=false

[Install]
...