read another html page

[alberthendriks]

I want to read another html page into a String. include does not suffice for two reasons:
1. You cannot access other webpages.
2. I don't want to display the webpage, instead I want to manipulate the data.

I tried this:
<?php
$url="http://www.alberthendriks.com/index.html";
$file = fopen ($url, "r");
if ($file) {
$lines_array = file($url);
$lines_string = implode('', $lines_array);
$my25charstring=substr($lines_string, 25, 50);
echo "<BR>$my25charstring<BR>";
}
else {echo "<p>Unable to open remote file.<br>\n"; }
?>

and I get:
Warning: fopen("http://www.alberthendriks.com/index.html", "r") - No such file or directory in /home/httpd/vhosts/alberthendriks.com/httpdocs/networking/crawler/webcrawler2.php on line 4

Unable to open remote file.

The file really does exist.

[daphreeek]

it looks from the error like you are on a server running safe mode which limits heaps!

I believe safe mode restricts access to files in your directory only. This is for safety.

I have a server running on my home computer (with DSL) and I am able to use that exact code.

I'm not sure of a way round it with PHP. I can think of 3 other options tho:

1) If you are able to change system settings on ur server then change PHP off safe mode or plead with your Server People (they prolly wont change it)

2) Move to a server that allows this (I will give you free, no-ads webhosting with PHP, MySQL, and FTP - however, coz its free, i guarantee nothing - email me)

3) Open the page in an inline frame and then from the parent frame, have a javascript that wait till the frame is completely loaded, then read it and paste it into a textbox of a form and then it automatically submits the form. This then means you get the page sent to you in a nice variable 🙂

Hope this helps 🙂
- Matt

http://daphreeek.kicks-ass.net
[e-mail]

[Duey]

got correct chmod settings? although it is only read it still has to be chmoded to allow public viewing.

[cahva]

Have you tried with file() instead of fopen()?

In yor code you first read the url with fopen() and if it exists, you read it again with file(). Whys that?

Try it with file() only:

<?php 
$url="http://www.alberthendriks.com/index.html"; 
$file = file($url); 
if ($file) { 
$lines_array = $file; 
$lines_string = implode('', $lines_array); 
$my25charstring=substr($lines_string, 25, 50); 
echo "<BR>$my25charstring<BR>"; 
} 
else {echo "<p>Unable to open remote file.<br>\n"; } 
?>