Error in code or in server

[cmccomas]

Hey all,

I have the following PHP code to get news headlines from a website. The code works fine on my computer with apache and PHP, but does not work on the server. Is the error in my code on on the server. If on the server, what can I do to fix it?

<?
$url_to_grab_from="http://www.newsnow.co.uk/newsfeed/?name=Arsenal";
$unique_start="<div class=\"top_stories\">";
$unique_end="<!-- newswire follows -->";

ini_set('max_execution_time', '0');	//tiempo ilimitado
flush();	//flush
$fd = @fread(fopen("$url_to_grab_from", "r"), 100000);	//abro la url


if ($fd)
{
	$start = strpos($fd, "$unique_start");
	$finish = strpos($fd, "$unique_end");
	$length = $finish-$start;
	$code = substr($fd, $start, $length);

//add more lines like the following to do more replacements	
//example:
//$code = str_replace("i want to replace this", "for this", $code);

$code = str_replace($unique_start, "", $code);
$code = str_replace("onClick=\"return wopen(this)\"", "", $code);
$code = str_replace("href=\"", "href=\"http://www.newsnow.co.uk", $code);
$code = str_replace("src=\"", "src=\"http://www.newsnow.co.uk", $code);


echo $code;
flush ();
}
?>

[LordShryku]

So what's the error?

[cmccomas]

It displays nothing, nothing at all. No error message, but nothing.

[cmccomas]

On my local server it displays EXACTLY what I want, but when I upload it, it displays nothing. I've uploaded to 3 different servers...

[TTT]

myabe you can get some error if you change this

$fd = @fread(fopen("$url_to_grab_from", "r"), 100000);

to this

$fd = fread(fopen("$url_to_grab_from", "r"), 100000);   

[dalecosp]

I see TTT is there ahead of me...you're suppressing the most likely error (and you're not allowing for checking, more later....)

It's a pretty good gamble that the sites that you are "hosting" with have disabled remote_url_fopen (or whatever that directive is actually called....) because they are running PHP in "safe" mode.

Your script doesn't allow for the possibility of failure on this count:

if ($fd) {
       do_something();
} else  {
        print_pretty_error_message();
}

[cmccomas]

Changed my code to this:

<?
	$url_to_grab_from="http://www.newsnow.co.uk/newsfeed/?name=Arsenal";
	$unique_start="<div class=\"top_stories\">";
	$unique_end="<!-- newswire follows -->";

ini_set('max_execution_time', '0');	//tiempo ilimitado
flush();	//flush
$fd = fread(fopen("$url_to_grab_from", "r"), 100000);	//abro la url


if ($fd)
{
$start = strpos($fd, "$unique_start");
$finish = strpos($fd, "$unique_end");
$length = $finish-$start;
$code = substr($fd, $start, $length);

//add more lines like the following to do more replacements	
//example:
//$code = str_replace("i want to replace this", "for this", $code);

$code = str_replace($unique_start, "", $code);
$code = str_replace("onClick=\"return wopen(this)\"", "", $code);
$code = str_replace("href=\"", "href=\"http://www.newsnow.co.uk", $code);
$code = str_replace("src=\"", "src=\"http://www.newsnow.co.uk", $code);


echo $code;
flush ();
}
else  { 
    print "error"; 
}

?>

I've contact me webhost admin and he says that the funtion to allow PHP to open/read url's is on, but is there a way I can view my php.ini file?

Does this code work on your servers? It's not printing an error message now either.

[dalecosp]

Nope, not working here either. A cursory examination of the code shows that $start, $finish, and therefore $length are coming up null....perhaps they've changed the site you are pulling from?

[cmccomas]

How about this one? I just did this one, with the latest site info, but it still doesn't work, not even printing an error message.

<?
	$url_to_grab_from="http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/foot/engl/t/gunn/index.html";
	$unique_start="<br clear=all><font face=verdana size=-2><b>Earlier Stories</b><br></font>";
	$unique_end="<br><form name=arch form action=http://uk.search.news.yahoo.com/search/news_ukie><input type=hidden name=nice value=\"Arsenal\">";

ini_set('max_execution_time', '0');        //tiempo ilimitado
flush();        //flush
$fd = fread(fopen("$url_to_grab_from", "r"), 100000);        //abro la url


if ($fd) {
    	$start = strpos($fd, "$unique_start");
    	$finish = strpos($fd, "$unique_end");
    	$length = $finish-$start;
    	$code = substr($fd, $start, $length);

    	//add more lines like the following to do more replacements
        //example:
    	//$code = str_replace("i want to replace this", "for this", $code);

    	$code = str_replace($unique_start, "", $code);
    	$code = str_replace("a href=\"", "a href=\"http://uk.sports.yahoo.com", $code);

	echo $code;
    	flush ();
} else {
	print "error";
}
?>

Does it work on your server?

Man, this is driving me nuts...

[cmccomas]

It prints NOTHING! Not even an error message, why?

[cmccomas]

HELP ME, please!

[laserlight]

hmm... what if you set
error_reporting(E_ALL);
?

[cmccomas]

thanks how do i do that?

[laserlight]

um, copy and paste at the top of your script?

I havent gone over your script with a fine toothcomb, so I cant say if it'll make any difference.

[cmccomas]

Thanks.

Can you copy and paste and see if it works on your web sever? It works fine when hosted locally, but when I upload to any server it doesn't work.

[helz]

doesnt work for me either,
its definatly returning true for the if statement, but then doing nothing.
i echo'ed $fd right after the if part and that outputs to the screen so it must be something in the next couple of lines

[cmccomas]

Thanks helz.

DO you have any idea?

[helz]

just for a test i echo'ed $code right after it has been assigned a value, and it displays nothing...
my guess is that $length is equal to 0, lets echo it and find out...

woo yes it is, so when you do substr it gets the info from the file starting from $start and lasting for 0 characters...

[cmccomas]

okay, why is it 0? i know there is stuff between those tags!

[helz]

id say that strpos is returning 1 as the value
you can try getting rid of the length part to see what is displayed