Including external webpages in site without breaking links

msandersen

I'm experimenting with the Postnuke CMS (www.postnuke.com), and have written a script that includes local html, php or txt files in the site, which includes a header with graphics and menus, a side-menu, anda footer, with the file to be included in the middle. This all works great, but I thought of extending it to be able to include external web pages in the site without resorting to framesets. The only other scripts available that does this use the IE-specific iframe tag, which tends to look ugly with scrollbars on the side and bottom, and having to scroll sideways constantly to read content. I also want a standards-compliant approach. I'd like the script to be portable, so prefer not to use Apache-specific functions, but it would be OK if it did, as I'd simply state that fact.

I've tried all the usual suspects, include(), readfile(), fgets(), and curl, but they all have the same problem. Whereas I can output the HTML fine embedded in the site, all links to images and stylesheets etc are broken due to the links being relative to MY server directories, NOT the origin server. Only by using a frameset and something like header('location:......') in the middle frame will it work. Obviously I can't do that in the middle of a page with no frames. I can't find good documentation on libcurl to see if IT has something.

So, how do I simply display a remote webpage without breaking the links? Is there a function to tell it to look relative to the origin server, not the local filesystem? Maybe by changing the Header data or something?

pipeten

Hi,
If you are getting the html data from the page then often, like you say it is linked using /blah.link rather than http://my.com/blah.link causing invalid "ripped" links.

I think the answer lies in a little html <BASE href="http://www.othersite.com/">

first you need to get the remote page html
then process the <HEAD></HEAD> to include <BASE href="http://www.othersite.com/pathtopageroot/">
and then echo the data to your user ?

Should work..

msandersen

I just knew there'd be a simple answer, though I figure there MUST be something in PHP as well.

I'm not an expert in HTML, I prefer not to worry about syntax and let Dreamweaver write the essentials in split-screen mode and know enough to edit the source to keep it clean (there's limits to WYSIWYG). I almost know more PHP now than HTML through experimenting with Postnuke, as PHP comes with a good e-manual. Computer books are too damn expensive 🙁, here in Australia much more so than the US due to antequated import laws from Imperial times. Something about not being able to mass-order directly from the US, but have to go through England, and if they republish it, that's what we have to get. I'm not real sure, though.

Anyway, had a quick test of it by saving the sourcecode from www.php.net, editing the header with the Base tag, and it works like a charm with the other retrieval methods. Now all I have to do is write a function to check if Base exists, and insert it if it doesn't (never come across it before). Thanks for the tip.

ducey

Hi,

I'm trying to include a page from an external website on my page and I see that you have solved this problem. Please can you tell me how you did it, or post your code here.

Many thanks,
Nathan