what to use instead of fopen()

scoyle74

Hello all, I have an interesting question I hope someone can help me with. I have a site hosted by an ISP that does not allow the use of fopen(). Is there an alternative that I could use? I have looked at fsockopen() but I don't think that is what I want.

The page that uses the fopen() is from the search page on my site. It opens an external URL which interfaces a Google web api and then displays my search results.

The only other alternative is to try to find another PHP search engine that is easily configurable.

thanks,
Scott 😕

devinemke

you might be able to use [man]file[/man] and/or [man]file_get_contents[/man] depending on your PHP version and your allow_url_fopen settings.

scoyle74

thanks for the info, I will look into them. The settings for the allow_url_fopen is '0', so that is not an option.

Scott

drawmack

[man]curl[/man]

scoyle74

Thanks for the help and suggestions in using curl instead of fopen. However, my host now informs me that they have enabled the allow_url_fopen and fopen settings for me.

Herein lies my problem. I am able to successfully use fopen to open a local (same directory as script) text file and read the contents. Yet, when I try to open a url using fopen it won't allow me to open it.

The allow_url_fopen setting is 1 and the safe_mode setting is 1.

Anyone have any ideas as to what might be the problem?

thanks,
Scott

AstroTeg

I'd recommend [man]curl[/man] too. You don't have to worry about all this fopen stuff. Plus curl has some URL tricks available which you might not need today, but could be handy later on (like submitting POST data and/or managing cookies, etc). Surprisingly, curl isn't much more difficult than fopen...

scoyle74

I'd like to explore using curl if possible, but I ran into a problem finding information. I went to the php.net site and have read the curl page, as well as the curl.haxx.se site (I think that is the address) but I couldn't find any information as to what to use instead of fopen, fgets, fread, etc...

I am fairy new to php so I still need a little bit of hand-holding/tutorial information. Any info you do have would be greatly appreciated, especially if it lets me use my scripts.

Scott

AstroTeg

Check out the user notes on php.net. Lots and lots of good stuff in there (but yes, you have to scroll and do some reading).

Specifically, check out [man]curl_init[/man]. It is whats used to start a curl session. That manual page has code for conneting to a URL and retrieving the data. Then check out curl_exec and you'll find even more notes there...

drawmack

and don't forget the magical function [man]curl_setopt[/man]

scoyle74

Thanks for all the help and info. I will keep reading and trying things out so I can get better and more familiar using this function.

thanks,
Scott
🙂