iron_worker_php is PHP language binding for IronWorker.

IronWorker is a massively scalable background processing system. See How It Works

Getting Started

Get credentials

To start using iron_worker_php, you need to sign up and get an oauth token.

1. Go to http://iron.io/ and sign up.
2. Get an Oauth Token at http://hud.iron.io/tokens

Install iron_worker_php

There are two ways to use iron_worker_php:

Using precompiled phar archive:

Copy iron_worker.phar to target directory and include it:

<?php
require_once "phar://iron_worker.phar";

Please note, phar extension available by default only from php 5.3.0 For php 5.2 you should install phar manually or use second option.

Using classes directly

1. Copy IronWorker.class.php to target directory
2. Grab IronCore.class.php there and copy to target directory
3. Include both of them:

<?php
require_once "IronCore.class.php"
require_once "IronWorker.class.php"

Using Composer

Follow instructions at https://packagist.org/

iron_worker package

Configure

Three ways to configure IronWorker:

• Passing array with options:

<?php
$worker = new IronWorker(array(
    'token' => 'XXXXXXXXX',
    'project_id' => 'XXXXXXXXX'
));

• Passing ini file name which stores your configuration options. Rename sample_config.ini to config.ini and include your Iron.io credentials (token and project_id):

<?php
$worker = new IronWorker('config.ini');

• Automatic config search - pass zero arguments to constructor and library will try to find config file in following locations:

  • iron.ini in current directory
  • iron.json in current directory
  • IRON_WORKER_TOKEN, IRON_WORKER_PROJECT_ID and other environment variables
  • IRON_TOKEN, IRON_PROJECT_ID and other environment variables
  • .iron.ini in user's home directory
  • .iron.json in user's home directory

Creating a Worker

Here's an example worker:

<?php
echo "Hello PHP World!\n";

Upload code to server

Using CLI tool (preferred)

• Get CLI tool
• Download or create iron.json config file with project_id/password
• Create HelloWorld.worker file, example:

runtime 'php'
exec 'HelloWorld.php'

• Upload!

$ iron_worker upload HelloWorld

.worker syntax reference

Worker examples

You can find plenty of good worker examples here: iron_worker_examples

Queueing a Worker

<?php
$task_id = $worker->postTask('HelloWorld');

Worker should start in a few seconds.

Scheduling a Worker

If you want to run your code more than once or run it in regular intervals, you should schedule it:

<?php
# 3 minutes from now
$start_at = time() + 3*60;

# Run task every 2 minutes, repeat 10 times
$worker->postScheduleAdvanced('HelloWorld', array(), $start_at, 2*60, null, 10);

Status of a Worker

To get the status of a worker, you can use the getTaskDetails() method.

<?php
$task_id = $worker->postTask('HelloWorld');
$details = $worker->getTaskDetails($task_id);

echo $details->status; # prints 'queued', 'complete', 'error' etc.

Get Worker Log

Use any function that print text inside your worker to put messages to log.

<?php
$task_id = $worker->postTask('HelloWorld');
sleep(10);
$details = $worker->getTaskDetails($task_id);
# Check log only if task is finished.
if ($details->status != 'queued') {
    $log = $worker->getLog($task_id);
    echo $log; # prints "Hello PHP World!"
}

Loading the Task Data Payload

To provide Payload to your worker simply put an array with any content you want.

<?php
$payload = array(
    'key_one' => 'Helpful text',
    'key_two' => 2,
    'options' => array(
        'option 1',
        'option 2'
    )
);

$worker->postTask('HelloWorld', $payload);

$worker->postScheduleSimple('HelloWorld', $payload, 10)

$worker->postScheduleAdvanced('HelloWorld', $payload, time()+3*60, 2*60, null, 5);

When your code is executed, it will be passed four program arguments:

• -id - The task id.
• -payload - the filename containing the data payload for this particular task.
• -d - the user writable directory that can be used while running your job.
• -config - the filename containing config data (if available) for particular code.

IronWorker provide functions getArgs(), getPayload(), getConfig() in your worker to help you using payload:

<?php
$args = getArgs();

echo "Hello PHP World!\n";

print_r($args);

Setting Task Priority

You can specify priority of the task by setting the corresponding parameter.

$options = array('priority' => '1');
# Run task with medium priority
$worker->postTask('HelloWorld', $payload, $options);

Value of priority parameter means the priority queue to run the task in. Valid values are 0, 1, and 2. 0 is the default.

Setting progress status

To set current task progress, just call setProgress($percent, $message) inside your worker.

• percent - A percentage value that can be set to show how much progress a task is making
• msg - A human readable message string that can be used when showing the status of a task

To retrieve this data on client side, use $worker->getTaskDetails($task_id);

Troubleshooting

http error: 0

If you see Uncaught exception 'Http_Exception' with message 'http error: 0 | ' it most likely caused by misconfigured cURL https certificates. There are two ways to fix this error:

1. Disable SSL certificate verification - add this line after IronWorker initialization: $worker->ssl_verifypeer = false;
2. Switch to http protocol - add this to configuration options: protocol = http and port = 80

Full Documentation

You can find more documentation here:

• http://dev.iron.io Full documetation for iron.io products.
• IronWorker PHP reference.
• IronWorker PHP Wiki pages.
• IronWorker PHP Examples