Call another php file - php

Question

I'm building an iPhone push server, and trying to get the push to work. I have a message.php file which put new message in the database, and then add the message to a push_queue table in the database.
To send the push, I manually have to go to the browser and call the push file (../push/push.php) which will send out the push.
Is there any way I can call the push.php file from the message.php file automatically?
I tried require_one, include, exec and file_get_contents without any luck.
It works if I use:
header('Location: ../push/push.php');
However, the push.php file takes a couple of seconds to execute and finish, so there's a delay for the user when trying to send a message.
I guess I could use a cron job to call the push.php file, but I'd rather not.
Here is the core function in push.php (based on http://www.raywenderlich.com/3525/apple-push-notification-services-tutorial-part-2):
function start()
{
//writeToLog('Connecting to ' . $this->server);
if (!$this->connectToAPNS())
exit;
while (true)
{
// Do at most 20 messages at a time. Note: we send each message in
// a separate packet to APNS. It would be more efficient if we
// combined several messages into one packet, but this script isn't
// smart enough to do that. ;-)
$stmt = $this->pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM push_queue WHERE time_sent IS NULL LIMIT 20');
$stmt->execute();
$messages = $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_OBJ);
$deletedIds = array();
foreach ($messages as $message)
{
if ($this->sendNotification($message->message_id, $message->device_token, $message->payload))
{
//$stmt = $this->pdo->prepare('UPDATE push_queue SET time_sent = NOW() WHERE message_id = ?');
//$stmt->execute(array($message->message_id));
$deletedIds[] = $message->message_id;
//$stmt = $this->pdo->prepare('DELETE FROM push_queue WHERE message_id = ?');
//$stmt->execute(array($message->message_id));
}
else // failed to deliver
{
$this->reconnectToAPNS();
}
}
//Delete the chunk of messages.
$this->pdo->query('DELETE FROM push_queue WHERE message_id IN ('.implode(',', $deletedIds).')');
unset($messages);
}
}

Answer 1

Create a function or class that does everything that your push.php does and call it when a new message is received or when the iPhone app queries for new messages. In this case you will not need to call other PHP in message.php.
This is a concept of MVC i.e. having your business logic separated from your controllers. In this case pushing is a business logic and message.php and push.php are your controllers.