How can I stream long-running Artisan command output to the browser with Livewire?

Below is an explanation of why your current approach isn’t streaming output and one way to achieve the desired behavior.

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Why It Doesn’t Work

When you call an Artisan command synchronously (using, for example, Artisan::call), PHP executes the command to completion before you even get a chance to “stream” anything. In your example with the StreamOutput, you’re still waiting for the command to finish running. The command output gets written to the stream as it happens, but since Artisan::call is blocking you don’t have a way to split that output into chunks that can be sent to the browser in real time via Livewire.

Livewire’s streaming functionality is designed to send updates back to the browser during a single HTTP response. Because your command is blocking, any updates are only sent once the command is done running.

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A Possible Solution

One common approach is to execute your command as an external process using Symfony’s Process component. This allows you to read chunks of the command output as they become available and then update your Livewire property accordingly. For example:

PHPCopied
use Symfony\Component\Process\Process;

public string $output = '';

public function streamTest(): void
{
    // Create a new process to run the Artisan command (using the PHP binary).
    $process = new Process(['php', 'artisan', 'list'], base_path());
    $process->setTimeout(null);
    
    // Start the process and update the output as chunks are received.
    $process->run(function ($type, $buffer) {
        // Append each new output chunk.
        $this->output .= $buffer;
        
        // Stream the updated output to the browser.
        // (Ensure your Livewire component and frontend are set up to handle "stream" updates.)
        $this->stream('output', $this->output, true);
    });
}

Points to Note

• Non-blocking Updates: In this example the Symfony Process component lets you register a callback that gets invoked with each output chunk while the command is still running.
• Livewire Streaming: The $this->stream() call sends new updates to the browser. Make sure your Livewire component and Blade template (using wire:stream) are correctly set up to receive and display these output chunks.
• Web Server Timeout: Long-running processes may need proper handling on your server configuration so that HTTP timeouts do not occur.

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Blade Template

Your Blade template can remain the same:

HTMLCopied
<div>
  <button wire:click="streamTest">Stream</button>
  Output: <pre wire:stream="output">{{ $output }}</pre>
</div>

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Summary

• The original approach using Artisan::call with a stream is blocking, so the output isn’t sent until completion.
• Using Symfony’s Process component allows you to read STDOUT in real time and stream updates back to the browser via Livewire.
• Additional server-side and client-side configuration may be needed for truly long running commands.

This should give you a starting point to stream command output without blocking your UI.