Kohana Fire and Forget Request Module

Ever wanted to make an external request in Kohana and not to worry about the response thus speeding up your application? This is the module for you!

This module adds a Fire and Forget External Request Client which you can use when making external requests. It utilises fsocketopen() function which allows making a request without the need wait for a response, thus considerably speeding up your app's execution time.

You will find this module useful if your application makes simple API calls and its execution doesn't rely on the response returned.

Features

Allows "asynchronous" requests from PHP.
Considerable speed increase compared to Kohana's native External Request Clients.
Extends native Kohana's features, so you don't need to learn any new syntax.
Full support for SSL requests.

Installation

Checkout/download files and folders to MODPATH/fafrequest.
Add this entry under Kohana::modules array in your APPPATH/bootstrap.php:

'fafrequest'   => MODPATH.'fafrequest',    // Fire and Forget Request

Configuration

This module requires no configuration.

Usage examples

In order to use Fire and Forget Request Client you either have to specify it as a default one:

Kohana_Request_Client_External::$client = 'Request_Client_FireAndForget';

or you need to specify the client with each request (see examples below).

Simple GET request

Request::factory('http://example.com/')
        ->client(new Request_Client_FireAndForget())
        ->execute();

GET with a Query String

Request::factory('http://example.com/example')
        ->client(new Request_Client_FireAndForget())
        ->query('foo', 'bar')
        ->query('baz', 'qux')
        ->execute();

NOTE: You always have to provide the GET parameters using Request::query() method and not in the Request URI provided when calling Request::factory() method.

Simple POST request

Request::factory('http://example.com/submit')
        ->client(new Request_Client_FireAndForget())
        ->method(HTTP_Request::POST)
        ->post('foo', 'bar')
        ->post('baz', 'qux')
        ->execute();

Mixing both GET and POST request parameters

Request::factory('http://example.com/submit')
        ->client(new Request_Client_FireAndForget())
        ->method(HTTP_Request::POST)
        ->post('foo', 'bar')
        ->post('baz', 'qux')
        ->query('corge', 'grault')
        ->query('garply', 'waldo')
        ->execute();

Setting Request Timeout

It is possible to set the fsocketopen() timeout parameter. The default value is 30 seconds.

Request::factory('http://example.com/')
        ->client(new Request_Client_FireAndForget(array('timeout' => 10)))
        ->execute();

SSL Requests

You can make secure requests as simple as you would make a normal ones, just use https scheme:

Request::factory('https://example.com/')
        ->client(new Request_Client_FireAndForget())
        ->execute();

Notes

Be aware that you can only use this module when making an External Request!

If an error occures when opening a socket the script will not stop the script's execution, instead it will log an error message. This is by design - after all it is "Fire and Forget".

Acknowledgements

The code for this module is losely based on W-Shadow's script and is inspired by my mate's question on StackOverflow.

michal-m/kohana-modules-fafrequest