diff --git a/httprl.module b/httprl.module
index ad0e9a2..312abf7 100755
--- a/httprl.module
+++ b/httprl.module
@@ -648,3 +648,69 @@ function httprl_parse_data(&$result) {
   }
 }
 
+/**
+ * Output text, close connection, continue processing in the background.
+ *
+ * @param $output
+ *  string - Text to output to open connection.
+ * @param $wait
+ *  bool - Wait 1 second?
+ * @param $content_type
+ *  string - Content type header.
+ * @param $length
+ *  int - Content length.
+ */
+function httprl_background_processing($output, $wait = TRUE, $content_type = "text/html; charset=utf-8", $length = 0) {
+  if (headers_sent()) {
+    return FALSE;
+  }
+
+  // Calculate Content Length
+  if ($length == 0) {
+    $output .= "\n";
+    $length = (httprl_strlen($output)-1);
+  }
+  // Prime php for background operations
+  $loop = 0;
+  while (ob_get_level() && $loop < 25) {
+    ob_end_clean();
+    $loop++;
+  }
+  header("Connection: close");
+  ignore_user_abort();
+
+  // Output headers & data
+  ob_start();
+  header("Content-type: " . $content_type);
+  header("Expires: Sun, 19 Nov 1978 05:00:00 GMT");
+  header("Cache-Control: no-cache");
+  header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate");
+  header("Content-Length: " . $length);
+  header("Connection: close");
+  print($output);
+  ob_end_flush();
+  flush();
+  // wait for 1 second
+  if ($wait) {
+    sleep(1);
+  }
+
+  // text returned and connection closed.
+  // Do background processing. Time taken after should not effect page load times.
+  return TRUE;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Get the length of a string in bytes
+ *
+ * @param $string
+ *   get string length
+ */
+function httprl_strlen($string) {
+  if (function_exists('mb_strlen')) {
+    return mb_strlen($string, '8bit');
+  }
+  else {
+    return strlen($string);
+  }
+}