I'm trying to build a web interface for some python scripts. The thing is I have to use PHP (and not CGI) and some of the scripts I execute take quite some time to finish: 5-10 minutes. Is it possible for PHP to communicate with the scripts and display some sort of progress status? This should allow the user to use the webpage as the task runs and display some status in the meantime or just a message when it's done.
Currently using exec() and on completion I process the output. The server is running on a Windows machine, so pcntl_fork will not work.
LATER EDIT:
Using another php script to feed the main page information using ajax doesn't seem to work because the server kills it (it reaches max execution time, and I don't really want to increase this unless necessary)
I was thinking about socket based communication but I don't see how is this useful in my case (some hints, maybe?
Thank you
I think you would have to use a meta refresh and maybe have the python write the status to a file and then have the php read from it.
You could use AJAX as well to make it more dynamic.
Also, probably shouldn't use exec()...that opens up a world of vulnerabilities.
Communication between PHP and Python