Threads in PHP?

Question

I am creating a web application using zend, here I create an interface from where user-A can send email to more than one user(s) & it works excellent but it slow the execution time because of which user-A wait too much for the "acknowledged response" ( which will show after the emails have sent. )

In Java there are "Threads" by which we can perform that task (send emails) & it does not slow the rest application.

Is there any technique in PHP/Zend just like in Java by which we can divide our tasks which could take much time eg: sending emails.

Answer 1

EDIT (thanks @Efazati, there seems to be new development in this direction)

http://php.net/manual/en/book.pthreads.php
Caution: (from here on the bottom):

pthreads was, and is, an experiment with pretty good results. Any of its limitations or features may change at any time; [...]

/EDIT

No threads in PHP!

The workaround is to store jobs in a queue (say rows in a table with the emails) and have a cronjob call your php script at a given interval (say 2 minutes) and poll for jobs. When jobs present fetch a few (depending on your php's install timeout) and send emails.

The main idea to defer execution:

• main script adds jobs in the queue
• cron script sends them in tiny slices

Gotchas:

• make sure u don't send an email without deleting from queue (worst case would be if a user rescieves some spam at 2 mins interval ...)
• make sure you don't delete a job without executing it first ...
• handle bouncing email using a score algorithm