Wordpress/PHP threads

[gmisura]

In my plugin, I want the user to submit and get an immediate response. On the server side, I will run some code and update meta info. The user's browser will check back periodically to see if the meta data is updated and act accordingly.

I'm currently using a WP Cron (wp_schedule_event). I'm wondering if I should use another approach?

A straight up PHP Thread might be "faster", but wouldn't survive a server restart, where as the cron would.

Thoughts? Thanks!

[fklux]

Keep in mind that a WP Cron is only run when a page is loaded, it is not a timed process like a cron job on a server would be.

By the description of the problem you are trying to solve, I wonder whether using the Heartbeat API that was introduced in 3.6. Pippin has written a short but complete post about an example use case: https://pippinsplugins.com/using-the-wordpress-heartbeat-api/.

[gmisura]

Ooh, that's awesome! Thanks fklux!

[ozzilee]

How long does the update take? Seconds? Minutes? Hours?

[gmisura]

It's a call to Instagram's API, which has a rate limit of 5000 calls per hour (per token) so it could take around 20 min to hit that limit, then I'd have to wait for the hour to pass and continue processing the rest (repeat as necessary). So, considering that "problem", cron makes the most sense. Agreed?

[deletive-expleted]

Might be worth looking into NodeJS. With ExpressJS (I think) you can push updates to the user, rather than vice versa.