I wouldn't call this a real solution, since it relies heavily on specific
server requirements and config changes. Simple fact is that a LOT of PHP
programmers are on shared servers, and their hosts would NOT want 50,000
emails queued up on disk. No way!!
I'd expect doing this frequently on a shared server would be the fastest way
to get your account shut down.
Justin French
on 17/08/02 6:37 AM, Daren Cotter ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> I have found a solution to my bulk email problem. I'm
> posting my solution simply because I spent nearly a
> year finding it, and I KNOW there's many other people
> in my same situation.
>
> First, a recap of my problem:
>
> I need to send personalized emails to my member list
> on a daily basis. I use PHP to query the MySQL
> database, and loop through the results using the
> mail() function. Problem: very slow, browser/php times
> out, etc.
>
> Solution:
>
> First, I configure sendmail to use "queueonly" as the
> DeliveryMethod (see sendmail.cf) instead of
> "background". Then, when my PHP script runs, mailings
> simply get queued instead of actually delivered. This
> is a x10 speed increase. My script queues
> approximately 1,000 mailings per minute (a x10 speed
> increase). Then, I modified the
> /etc/rc.d/init.d/sendmail script to process the queue
> every 5 minutes, instead of the default one hour. This
> insures that the mailings actually get sent soon after
> they're queued, and you won't have to wait for
> important emails to come through.
>
> The problem with the above solution used to be this:
> certain emails generated from my site (welcome emails,
> password lookup emails, etc) need to be sent
> IMMEDIATELY, and cannot wait in the queue for 5
> minutes. The solution for this: not using the built-in
> mail() command in PHP. I created my own mail script
> (by modifying something someone else already did)
> which opens a socket directly with the mail server.
> Code is below.
>
> // Sends the email directly to the mail server using
> SMTP. This is done
> // so sendmail can be setup using the queue method on
> the server, and
> // confirmation emails, etc, can be sent immediately
> to the member.
> function smtp_mail($to, $from_name, $from_email,
> $reply_to_email, $subject, $body) {
> $smtp = fsockopen("your_mail_server_here", 25);
> if ($smtp == 0)
> return 0;
> fputs($smtp,"helo
> machines_host_and_domain_name_here\r\n");
> $line = fgets($smtp, 1024);
> fputs($smtp,"mail from: $from_email\r\n");
> $line = fgets($smtp, 1024);
> fputs($smtp,"rcpt to: $to\r\n");
> $line = fgets($smtp, 1024);
> fputs($smtp,"data\r\n");
> $line = fgets($smtp, 1024);
> fputs($smtp,"From: $from_name <$from_email>\r\n");
> fputs($smtp,"Reply-To: $reply_to_email\r\n");
> fputs($smtp,"To: $to\r\n");
> fputs($smtp,"Subject: $subject\r\n");
> fputs($smtp,"\r\n");
> fputs($smtp,"$body\r\n");
> fputs($smtp,".\r\n");
> $line = fgets($smtp, 1024);
> fputs($smtp, "QUIT\r\n");
> fclose($smtp);
> return 1;
> }
>
> Function is called as follows:
>
> if (!smtp_mail("recipient_email_here",
> $EMAIL_FROM_NAME, $EMAIL_FROM_EMAIL,
> $EMAIL_FROM_REPLY_TO, $SIGNUP_VALIDATION_SUBJECT,
> "Test Body")) {
> print "error: mail not sent";
> } else {
> print "it worked!";
> }
>
> Hope this helps others!
>
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