PHP Flush/ob_flush not working

Question

I've tried several attempts at getting my flush and ob_flush to work. I've tried setting the ini to allow buffering, I've tried using several different functions I found online for output buffering, and none of it at all is working. The script wants to wait until it is completly done until it echos output. Here is the script I have so far

 ob_start();

 //Login User
 echo 'Logging in to user<br>';
       ob_flush();
       flush();
      $ch = curl_init("http://www.mysite.com/login/");
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "username=$user&pass=$pass");
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, "cookies/$cookie");
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "cookies/$cookie");
      $output = curl_exec($ch);
      curl_close($ch);
      ob_flush();
      flush();

       //Update Status
 echo 'Updating Status<br>';
       ob_flush();
       flush();
      $ch = curl_init("http://www.mysite.com/update/");
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "status=$status");
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, "cookies/$cookie");
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "cookies/$cookie");
      $output = curl_exec($ch);
      curl_close($ch);
      ob_flush();
      flush();

I want it to echo what it is doing, then run the function, then echo something else, then do another function. I want all the buffers to be flushed and echoed in real time on the browser.

Answer 1

I just wanted to write a quick note of what I've observed, now in 2016, of the different approached suggested:

The above codes offered by netcoder and David work for me in the following browsers:

• Chrome
• Opera

It does not seem to work in Firefox, Safari, or IE 10-11.

I've also tested the alternative code:

<?php

    if (ob_get_level() == 0) ob_start();
    for ($i = 0; $i<10; $i++){

        echo "<br> Line to show.";
        echo str_pad('',4096)."\n";    

        ob_flush();
        flush();
        sleep(2);
    }

    echo "Done.";

    ob_end_flush();
?>

Which can be found here: http://php.net/manual/en/function.flush.php#54841

Which seems to have better current support through all browsers:

• Chrome
• Firefox
• Opera
• Safari
• IE 10
• IE 11

The working implementations seem to change year to year, so I wanted to offer an update of what I've found myself to work at the moment.