Continue php script after connection close

Question

I am trying to continue a PHP Script after the page/connection is closed.

Users will POLL the script in every 1 hour, I want to return some json output and want to c

Answer 1

First, don't use space after Connection and before : it should be Header: value not Header : value. Second, Connection: close don't force browser to stop getting current response and display blank page. Here http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html chapter 14.10 it states: Connection: close in either the request or the response header fields indicates that the connection SHOULD NOT be considered 'persistent' (section 8.1) after the current request/response is complete

So how can you try if your code works:

ignore_user_abort();
header("Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8");

// just to try show following echo immediately, working depends on server configuration
while (@ob_end_flush()); 

echo date('Y-m-d H:i:s'), PHP_EOL;

echo "JSON_OUTPUT GOES HERE", PHP_EOL;

sleep(10); // 10 seconds so you can close browser tab before

// this file should be created after 10 seconds, even after you closed browser tab
// also check if permissions to write to __DIR__ are set for apache.
file_put_contents(__DIR__ . '/tmp.txt', "Text after 10 sec");

exit;

Open this php file in browser and after 2-3 seconds close tab (even if you don't see anything on screen), wait a little longer and check if file is created. It's working on my linux machine.