PHP Sockets - can't connect - php

Question

I am trying to make a PHP Script, which does the following things:
starts listening on a designated port for connections and messages
connects to a designated port, for communication
This is how it looks like (I will only copy parts of the script, because it spans multiple classes, and it would be hard to copy each part):
CONSTRUCTOR FOR THE MAIN OBJECT IN THE SCRIPT
//connecting to the designated port for communication
$this->nodeServer = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, SOL_TCP);
socket_set_option($this->nodeServer, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, 1);
if (socket_connect($this->nodeServer,"xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx",'14000') === false) {
throw new UnexpectedValueException("Failed to connect: " . socket_strerror(socket_late_error()));
exit;
}
//starting to listen on the designated port
$this->socketListener = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, SOL_TCP);
socket_set_option($this->socketListener, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, 1);
socket_bind($this->socketListener, 0, $this->listeningPort);
socket_listen($this->socketListener);
//adding these two sockets(the connected one, and the listener one) to an array
$this->addSocket($this->nodeServer);
$this->addSocket($this->socketListener);
In the main file, I do the following:
MAIN FILE
$connectedToNode=true;
while ($connectedToNode) {
//manage multipal connections
$changedRead = $PHPWorker->socketList;
$changedWrite = $PHPWorker->socketList;
socket_select($changedRead, $changedWrite, $null, 0, 10);
echo 'This is a test echo'; // ECHO NR. 1
//check for new socket
if (in_array($PHPWorker->socketListener, $changedRead)) {
$socket_new = socket_accept($PHPWorker->socketListener); //accpet new socket
$PHPWorker->addSocket($socket_new); //add socket to client array
$header = socket_read($socket_new, 1024); //read data sent by the socket
socket_getpeername($socket_new, $ip); //get ip address of connected socket
echo "Someone connected"; // ECHO NR. 2
echo $ip; // ECHO NR. 3
//make room for new socket
$found_socket = array_search($PHPWorker->socketListener, $changedRead);
unset($changedRead[$found_socket]);
}
foreach ($changedRead as $changed_socket) {
//if I get an incomming message, process it
while(socket_recv($changed_socket, $buf, 1024, 0) >= 1)
{
echo "This is the second test"; // ECHO NR. 4
$socketid = array_search($changed_socket, $PHPWorker->socketList);
$PHPWorker->processMessage($socketid, $buf);
}
$buf = #socket_read($changed_socket, 1024, PHP_NORMAL_READ);
if ($buf === false) { // check disconnected client
// remove client for array
$socketid = array_search($changed_socket, $PHPWorker->socketList);
if (($socketid==0) || ($socketid==1)) {
//the first element is the "nodeServer", the second element is the listener, if either one goes away, stop the script
$connectedToNode=false;
}
//unset the disconnected client
unset($PHPWorker->socketList[$socketid]);
unset($PHPWorker->socketData[$socketid]);
}
}
}
I currently managed to connect to the "NodeServer", and I am able to communicate with it, and it works just fine, however I can't manage to connect from another PHP script, to the listener of this PHP script.
This is how I tried (another part from another object):
$this->PHPHelper = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, SOL_TCP);
socket_set_option($this->PHPHelper, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, 1);
$hostip=gethostbyname('myhost.name.here');
if (!socket_connect($this->PHPHelper, $hostip, $portOnWhichMainSocketIsListening)) {
echo socket_strerror(socket_last_error());
socket_clear_error();
$this->PHPHelper=null;
} else {
socket_send($this->PHPHelper, "test\0", strlen("test\0"), 0);
}
The echoes in the while cycle, are there for test, and strangely, echo nr 1 is fired only once, nr.2 and nr.3 is never fired, and nr.4 is fired each time when I send a message from NodeServer to the listener php script.
What could be the problem? What am I doing wrong? Shouldn't the first echo fire at every loop?
Part of this script was written with inspiration from this page: http://www.phpbuilder.com/articles/application-architecture/optimization/creating-real-time-applications-with-php-and-websockets.html
EDIT:
Okay, it seems that I found a solution, but I still don't understand why this works:
In the while part of the below code:
foreach ($changedRead as $changed_socket) {
//if I get an incomming message, process it
while(socket_recv($changed_socket, $buf, 1024, 0) >= 1)
{
echo "This is the second test"; // ECHO NR. 4
...
}
}
I've inserted a break 2; command, which gives back permission to the main while cycle, to continue executing. This way, I can connect to the listener socket from the other PHP file, and the echo's also fire. But my question is then, why is the execution stuck in the inner while and for cycles without the break command?