How can PHP handle server-side events and notify clients without relying on AJAX?

PHP can handle server-side events and notify clients without relying on AJAX by using server-sent events (SSE). SSE allows servers to push data to web clients over a single, long-lived connection. This eliminates the need for constant client requests and reduces server load. To implement SSE in PHP, you can use the `header()` function to set the content type to `text/event-stream` and then continuously output data to the client using `echo`. 

<?php
header('Content-Type: text/event-stream');
header('Cache-Control: no-cache');

// Simulate server-side events
for ($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++) {
    echo "data: Event $i\n\n";
    ob_flush();
    flush();
    sleep(1); // Simulate delay between events
}
?>

Keywords

Server-sent events event-driven programming PHP stream functions push notifications real-time communication

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