Non-blocking file_put_contents in function.php

I have a function in function.php which is called on save_post. Currently, when the user is publishing or updating a post, this function will execute but it will take a lot of time.

What is the easiest way so this function run in a background process – non-blocking?

function export_all_in_json() {
   file_put_contents(ABSPATH.'all.json', fopen('https://example.com/api/all/get_all_content/', 'r'));
}
add_action( 'save_post', 'export_all_in_json' );

Answers:

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Method 1

Instead of contacting the remote site to get the information in an expensive HTTP request, why not have the remote site send you the data at regular intervals?

1. Register a REST API endpoint to recieve the data on
   • In that endpoint, take in the data and save it in all.json
2. On the remote site add a cron job
   • grab the data
   • make a non-blocking remote request to the site with this data

Now we have a completely asynchronous non-blocking system. Why fetch the data when it can be given to you?

This gives us several bonuses:

• The save_post filter can be completely removed making post saving faster
• This fixes a number of bugs in the filter by removing the filter
• Updates to the file can happen even when no posts are being created
• Updates to the file are now predictable and routine, e.g. every 5 minutes, or every hour
• This avoids race conditions where multiple requests are sent to the API at the same time, resulting in extra server load and broken JSON files
• Your API endpoint takes a little time to figure out the JSON data, so this gives you control over how often it happens, e.g. if the site is struggling change the cron job from 5 minutes too 10 minutes to ease the load
• You could ping the API and tell it to trigger sending the data to the endpoint when a post is saved, rather than doing the full fetch and save. This would allow you to use a fetch paradigm and still have the advantages. It’s similar to how some payment and authentication flows work too.

Method 2

Maybe you can use Action Scheduler to trigger a single asyncronous event. Just like a cronjob but triggered one time.

https://actionscheduler.org/

All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0