PHP function shuts down on SoapClient::__doRequest connection timeout - php

Question

I am attempting to write a background function that communicates with an external API to retrieve & update information on about 500,000 records on our server. This takes time to run. The problem I'm running into is this PHP fatal error from a function called inside a foreach loop, which shuts down the function entirely:
SoapClient::__doRequest(): connect() failed: Connection timed out in /path/to/function on line ABC
Here is a mock version of the function, with an indication of the line where the fatal error is being thrown, shutting down the function:
private function APIUpdateFunction($table,$record,$fields,$data) {
$soap = new SoapClient("https://www.endpoint.com/API/stuff.whatever");
$result = $soap->UpdateRecord(array(
"credentials" => API_CREDS,
"table" => $table,
"record" => $record,
"fields" => $fields,
"data" => $data
)); // THIS IS WHERE THE FATAL ERROR IS BEING THROWN
}
What I would like to do is create a workaround where IF the function shuts down as a result of this connection timeout, I would like to either:
A) Perform a new set of actions, such as restarting the function itself
or
B) Bypass the error entirely, and check in the next step for a response value. For example, if $result = NULL, the remaining items in this function would be bypassed and return a FALSE value.
What is the solution?

Answer 1

You can control the time your script takes to connect to the remote host/service and the time for how long the socket connection should wait for a response from the server.
The first option can be configured by specifying the timeout when you create the Soap Client:
$client = new SoapClient($wsdl, array("connection_timeout"=>15));
The second option can be configured using:
ini_set('default_socket_timeout', 180);
Now if you want to catch a timeout error, either during the host connection or the socket connection, you should catch a SoapFault exception, for example:
private function APIUpdateFunction($table,$record,$fields,$data)
{
try {
$soap = new SoapClient("https://www.endpoint.com/API/stuff.whatever");
$result = $soap->UpdateRecord(array(
"credentials" => API_CREDS,
"table" => $table,
"record" => $record,
"fields" => $fields,
"data" => $data
)); // THIS IS WHERE THE FATAL ERROR IS BEING THROWN
} catch (SoapFault $e) {
// There was an error with the Soap Client
// Do something here
}
}