Async Data Request in PHP

In PHP, you can send data asynchronously using curl by setting it up in a way that it doesn’t wait for a response. Here’s a function that does this by using curl with options configured to ignore the response:

function sendAsyncRequest($url, $data = [])
{
    $ch = curl_init();

    // If data is provided, we assume it's a POST request
    if (!empty($data)) {
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query($data));
    }

    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, false); // Don't wait for response
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false); // Don't include headers in output
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 1); // Timeout quickly
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
    
    // Prevent waiting for response by closing the connection early
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FORBID_REUSE, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FRESH_CONNECT, true);

    curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close($ch);
}

// Usage example
$url = "https://example.com/api/endpoint";
$data = ['param1' => 'value1', 'param2' => 'value2'];
sendAsyncRequest($url, $data);

Explanation:

1. CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER: Setting this to false means the function won’t wait for data to be returned.
2. CURLOPT_TIMEOUT: Setting a short timeout ensures the request doesn’t delay your script.
3. CURLOPT_FORBID_REUSE and CURLOPT_FRESH_CONNECT: These options ensure that the connection to the remote server is closed immediately, so the request is sent and then the PHP script moves on.

This function initiates a request to another server and moves on without waiting for the server’s response.