Comments on: ob_start(), ob_flush(), flush(), set_time_limit() – Give user feedback during execution

By: Joey

Joey — Fri, 20 May 2011 03:14:25 +0000

Hey Johannes,

I have a process I built at work that publishes a course and creates hundreds to thousands of individual xml files from a db. This process can take up to 10 minutes to complete. All of this is happening sever side so ajax is not an option. Instead of showing a message to the user that read “please wait” with no signs of activity for 10 minutes, I display the different processes that are taking place using output buffers to let the user know that the process is working. As each page is published I display that on the screen, as each lesson is published, I display this on the screen with the total number of lessons left to give them an idea of how much progress is left. I personally don’t see this as a hack and instead see this as a way to enhance my users experience.

By: Johannes Reiners

Johannes Reiners — Thu, 19 May 2011 22:15:30 +0000

As an addition: i would use ajax or at least a hidden iframe loading this stuff in the background rather than output it direct to the browser. It’s much more userfriendly.
By the way: This sounds for me like an ugly workaround and it’s surely not best practice doing it this way. I avoid such things like the plague and i try to take this into account when planning a website.

By: PHP: eseguire l’output di una stringa durante l’esecuzione di uno script con ob_start(), ob_flush(), flush() « TechWave

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 14:08:20 +0000

[...] Di seguito un esempio di codice per testare il funzionamento ricavato da un articolo del blog joeyrivera.com [...]

By: Best-of-the-Web 3 | davblog: webdev and stuff

Best-of-the-Web 3 | davblog: webdev and stuff — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 20:18:46 +0000

[...] Give user feedback during execution – PHP’s Outputbuffering dazu verwenden, lang laufende Scripte “responsive” wirken zu lassen [...]

By: Trixmasta

Trixmasta — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 22:25:35 +0000

Ive been trying to figure this S**T out for hours!!!!! I couldnt get the data to flush() properly this whole time! And simply the str_pad fixed it!

Thank you dude!

Can someone explain why the str_pad works??

By: Simple, Chrome compatible, PHP flush function | woot.zapto.org

Simple, Chrome compatible, PHP flush function | woot.zapto.org — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:51:22 +0000

[...] applications. So whats the fix? After searching around for a solution, I stumbled upon this blog post on joeyrivera.com. His workaround uses the str_pad function to force Chrome to refresh the [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:34:00 +0000

Thank you for this tip

By: the echothis blog » Google Chrome doesn’t like to stream

the echothis blog » Google Chrome doesn’t like to stream — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 22:03:22 +0000

[...] sending actually matters as well (at least to Chrome and thus likely Safari). E.g., a standard workaround is this: // start output buffer if (ob_get_level() == 0) ob_start(); [...]

By: Rolf

Rolf — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:54:35 +0000

Great post! What I discovered is that Chrome (and likely Safari) will only stream the buffer if you end the printed line with a , as you did in your example. If you replace it with say a \n (newline), it no longer works. That stuck me for awhile before I figured it out.

By: » ce qui a retenu mon attention cette semaine ! oxynel, blog communication - Agence de communication Montpellier

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:16:00 +0000

[...] Pour mes développeurs ! sisi quand on a un set_time_limit en php on peut voir l’avancement d&… [...]