How many times did you send an email as part of a web request? You know, the classical contact form that sends an email when the user submits the form. How many times did you implement a file import system that processes the file the moment the file is uploaded? I could carry on forever with examples, but the point is: STOP IT. Those are very bad ideas!
In this talk I will introduce the concept of job queues, that allow us to separate those elements of an application that should not be a part of the request-response cycle that is initiated by a client. Sending out emails, processing files, file format conversion, image thumbnailing… You will leave this session with an Eureka moment.
We will see how to use Gearman to speed up our web applications through the implementation of job queues, aka robots, that will do the heavy lifting. As part of this process, we will understand the difference between Gearman and more generic approaches to this problem (such as 0mq, RabbitMQ, or ActiveMQ), how to apply it to our day-to-day development, and what tricks and advises we should take into account to make the most out of job queues.