Use PHP's ob_start(); to control your browser cache!

The Output Control function allows you to freely control the output of data in the script. It is very useful, especially when you want to output the file header after the data has been output. The output control function does not affect the file header information sent using header() or setcookie(), but only affects data blocks similar to echo() and PHP code.

Let’s give you a simple example to give you a general impression of Output Control:
Example 1.

CODEob_start(); // Open the buffer
echo "Hellon"; //Output
header("location:index.php"); //Redirect the browser to index.php
ob_end_flush(); //Output all Content to browser
?>

Everyone who knows the header() function knows that this function will send a file header to the browser, but if it already exists before using this function Any output (including empty output such as spaces, carriage returns, and line feeds) will prompt an error. If we remove ob_start() in the first line and then execute this program, we will find that we get an error message: "Header had all ready send by"! But with ob_start, there will be no error message. The reason is that when the buffer is opened, the characters after echo will not be output to the browser, but will be retained on the server. They will not be output until you use flush or ob_end_flush, so it will not Any file header output errors!

1. Introduction to related functions:
1. Flush: refresh the contents of the buffer and output.
Function format: flush()
Description: This function is frequently used and is very efficient.
2. ob_start: Open the output buffer
Function format: void ob_start(void)
Description: When the buffer is activated, all non-file header information from the PHP program will not be sent, but saved. in the internal buffer. In order to output the contents of the buffer, you can use ob_end_flush() or flush() to output the contents of the buffer.
3. ob_get_contents: Returns the contents of the internal buffer.
Usage: string ob_get_contents(void)
Description: This function will return the contents of the current buffer. If the output buffer is not activated, it will return FALSE.
4. ob_get_length: Returns the length of the internal buffer.
Usage: int ob_get_length(void)
Description: This function will return the length in the current buffer; the same as ob_get_contents, if the output buffer is not activated. Returns FALSE.
5. ob_end_flush: Send the contents of the internal buffer to the browser and close the output buffer.
Usage: void ob_end_flush(void)
Description: This function sends the contents of the output buffer (if any).
6. ob_end_clean: Delete the contents of the internal buffer and close the internal buffer
Usage: void ob_end_clean(void)
Description: This function will not output the contents of the internal buffer but delete it !
7. ob_implicit_flush: Turn on or off absolute refresh
Usage: void ob_implicit_flush ([int flag])
Explanation: Anyone who has used Perl knows the meaning of $|=x, this string can be turned on /Close the buffer, and the ob_implicit_flush function is the same as that. The default is to close the buffer. After turning on absolute output, each script output is sent directly to the browser, and there is no need to call flush()

2. In-depth understanding:

1. About the Flush function:
This function appeared in PHP3. It is a very efficient function. It has a very useful function which is to refresh the browser’s cache. .Let’s take an example with a very obvious operating effect to illustrate flush.
Example 2.

CODEfor($i = 1; $i <= 300; $i++ ) print(" ");
// This sentence is very critical. The structure of the cache makes it so that its content can only be output from the browser when it reaches a certain size
// In other words, if the content of the cache does not reach a certain size size, it will not be output before the program execution is completed. After
// testing, I found that the lower limit of this size is 256 characters long. This means that the content received by the cache in the future will
// be sent out continuously.
For($j = 1; $j <= 20; $j++) {
echo $j."
";
flush(); //This will add new cache The content is squeezed out and displayed on the browser
sleep(1); //Let the program "sleep" for a second, which will allow you to see the effect more clearly
}
?>

You can go here to see the specific effect [url]http://www.php2000.com/~uchinaboy/out.php[/url]
PHP2000’s latest PHP chat room This technology is used, but unfortunately the source code is not disclosed. L
Note: If you add ob_implicit_flush() to the beginning of the program to turn on absolute refresh, you can no longer use flush() in the program. The benefits of this are: Improve efficiency!

2. About the ob series functions:
I would like to quote an example from my good friend y10k first:
Example 3.

For example, you can use the server and client settings information, but this information will vary depending on the client. What if you want to save the output of the phpinfo() function? Before there was no buffer control, it can be said that there was no way at all, but with buffer control, we can easily solve it:
CODEob_start(); //Open the buffer
phpinfo(); //Use the phpinfo function
$info=ob_get_contents(); //Get the contents of the buffer and assign it to $info
$file=fopen('info.txt','w'); //Open the file info.txt
fwrite($file,$info); //Write information to info.txt
fclose($file); //Close the file info.txt
?>

Using the above method, you can save the phpinfo information of different users. This may not have been possible before! In fact, the above is a method to convert some "processes" into "functions"!
Some people may ask: "Is it just like this? Are there any other uses?" Of course, there is. For example, the PHP syntax highlighting in the author's forum is related to this (PHP's default syntax highlighting function will directly Output, the result cannot be saved. If it is displayed every time it is called, it will be a waste of CPU. The author's forum retains the result displayed by the syntax highlighting function by controlling the buffer). If you are interested, you can take a look. [url]http://www.zphp.com/bbs/[/url]!

Maybe now you have a certain understanding of the function of ob_start(). The above example may seem simple, but in fact you have mastered the key points of using ob_start().
<1>. Use ob_start to open the browser's cache. This ensures that the contents of the cache will not be output before you call flush(), ob_end_flush() (or the program is executed).
<2>. Now you should know the advantages you have: you can use header, setcookie and session after any output content, which is a great feature of ob_start; you can also use the parameters of ob_start in cache After being written, the command is automatically run, such as ob_start("ob_gzhandler"); and our most common approach is to use ob_get_contents() to get the contents of the cache, and then process it...
<3>. After processing, we can use various methods to output, flush(), ob_end_flush(), and automatic output after the program is executed. Of course, if you are using ob_get_contents(), then you have to control the output method yourself.

Come, let’s see what we can do with the ob series functions...

1. Static template technology

Introduction: The so-called static template technology is to use a certain method , so that what the user gets on the client side is the html page generated by PHP. If this HTML page will no longer be updated, then when another user browses this page again, the program will no longer call PHP and related databases. For some websites with a large amount of information, such as sina, 163, sohu. The benefits of technology like this are huge.

I know of two ways to achieve static output:
<1>. Implemented through a class called template.inc.php of phplib modified by y10k.
<2>. Use ob series functions to implement.
As for the first method, because it is not the issue to be studied in this article, I will not go into details.
Let’s now take a look at the specific implementation of the second method:
Example 4.

CODEob_start();//Open the buffer
?>
All output of the php page
$content = ob_get_contents();//Get all the content output of the php page
$fp = fopen("output00001.html" , "w"); //Create a file, open it, and prepare to write
fwrite($fp, $content); //Write all the contents of the php page to output00001.html, and then...
fclose($fp);
?>

In this way, the so-called static template can be easily implemented...

2. Capture output

and above Example 4. is the simplest case. You can also operate on $content before writing...
You can try to capture some keywords and then reprocess it, such as Example 3. PHP syntax highlighting described above.Personally, I think this function is the best part of this function. It can solve a variety of problems, but it requires you to have enough imagination...
Example 5.

CODEFunction run_code($code) {
If($code) {
ob_start();
eval($code);
$contents = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
}else {
echo "Error! No output";
exit();
}
return $contents;
}

The above The example is not very useful, but it is very typical that $code itself is an output page containing variables, and this example uses eval to replace the variables in $code, and then captures the output results and processes them again... …

Example 6. Speed up transfer

CODE/*
** Title..........: PHP4 HTTP Compression Speeds up the Web
** Version.....: 1.20
** Author.....: catoc <[email]catoc@163.net[/email]>
** Filename...: gzdoc.php
** Last changed..: 18/10/2000
** Requirements...: PHP4 >= 4.0.1
** PHP was configured with --with-zlib[=DIR]
** Notes...: Dynamic Content Acceleration compresses
** the data transmission data on the fly
** code by sun jin hu (catoc) <[email]catoc@163.net[/email]>
** Most newer browsers since 1998/1999 have
** been equipped to support the HTTP 1.1
** standard known as "content-encoding."
** Essentially the browser indicates to the
** server that it can accept "content-encoding"
** and if the server is capable it will then
** compress the data and transmit it. The
** browser decompresses it and then renders
** the page.
**
** Modified by John Lim ([email]jlim@natsoft.com.my[/email])
** based on ideas by Sandy McArthur, Jr
** Usage.....:
** No space before the beginning of the first '** ------------Start of file----------
** | ** | include('gzdoc.php');
** |? >
** |
** |... the page .. .
** |
** |** | gzdocout();
** |? >
** ----- --------End of file-----------
*/
ob_start();
ob_implicit_flush(0);
function CheckCanGzip(){
global $HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING;
if (headers_sent() || connection_timeout() || connection_aborted()){
return 0;
}
if (strpos($HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING, 'x- gzip') !== false) return "x-gzip";
if (strpos($HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING,'gzip') !== false) return "gzip";
return 0;
}
/* $level = compression level 0-9, 0=none, 9=max */
function GzDocOut($level=1,$debug=0){
$ENCODING = CheckCanGzip();
if ($ENCODING){
print "nn";
$Contents = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
if ($debug){
$s = "

Not compressed length: ".strlen($Contents);
$s .= "
Compressed length: ".strlen(gzcompress($Contents ,$level));
$Contents .= $s;
}
header("Content-Encoding: $ENCODING");
print "x1fx8bx08x00x00x00x00x00";
$Size = strlen ($Contents);
$Crc = crc32($Contents);
$Contents = gzcompress($Contents,$level);
$Contents = substr($Contents, 0, strlen($Contents) - 4);
print $Contents;
print pack('V',$Crc);
print pack('V',$Size);
exit;
}else{
ob_end_flush();
exit;
}
}
?>

This is a long time ago code of catoc, which I saw on weblogs.com Yes, he used the function of zlib to compress the transmitted content. The test showed that the effect will be produced for pages above 10k, and the larger the page, the more obvious the effect...

Use PHP's ob_start(); to control your browser cache!_PHP tutorial