i have this simple script to send emails to my subscribers. i've broken the sending into 20 emails per batch to get around getting a timeout error in my browser. without bias from using PEAR in sending multiple emails, any comments to improve the code will be appreciated. thank you.

Code:

<?php
include("user_functions.php");
include("connection.php");    // connects to MySQL database
$allsent = false;            // flag to signal that message has been sent to all subscribers
$subject = "email subject";
$message = "Content of the Email message.";
$headers = "From: name@domain.com";

// send email 20 at a time
$query = "SELECT * FROM email_database WHERE sent != 1 LIMIT 20";
$result = mysql_query($query, $conn);
if (mysql_num_rows($result) > 0) {
    while ($rows = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
        mail ($rows['email'], $subject, $message, $headers); 
        $query2 = "UPDATE email_database SET sent = 1";
        $result2 = mysql_query($query2, $conn);
    }
} else {
    $allsent = true;
}
include("close_connection.php");    // close the connection
for ($i=0; $i<=1000000; $i++) {
//delay counter
}
if !$allsent {
    redirect_to( self );    // user defined function (header function)
}
?>

It seems like you might be repeating this code indefinitely, sending 20 emails at a time, until you have sent an email to every email address in the database.

If that is the case, then you are executing multiple database queries, when you really only need to execute one (that returns all emails - no LIMIT clause). This is less taxing on the database.

After performing your single db query, you can loop through the result set and implement sleep() commands periodically to temporarily stall execution (to accommodate email send limits).

What sim_pack is saying is that he doesn't want the script to time out. Therefore he is sending 20 emails at a time and then redirecting the browser back to its own page to start the process of sending again.

@sim_pack: Look at using the functions ignore_user_abort(true) and set_time_limit(0).

The former will ignore the browser connection being close (the stop button, the window being closed etc) will mean the script continues to run instead of stopping as normal.

The latter will mean that the script can continue to run for as long as it needs.

With those two functions you can call your script from the browser and then hit the stop button. It will continue to run and you won't need to keep refreshing/redirecting the page. Just be sure to include some code in the loop that will look for a stop indicator (a file, a marker in a DB etc) so that the script will exit when instructed to.
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Code:

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if (isset($_POST['submit']))
//Internet explorer has a bug and does not always send the submit value.

thanks familyguy, you pretty much nailed what i wanted to do. i will try to incorporate your suggestions to improve the code.

thank you also to everyone who contributed their ideas. i appreciate it very much.

off topic, I love family guy. :)