[RESOLVED] Drawing in content from another server

Jon12345

I have a webpage template on Site A with Host A. However, I want to show - in the center of my webpage - a webpage from Site B on Host B. But, I want to hide the fact that the "remote" content is in fact drawn in from another webpage.

How can I do this? Is it possible to use php?

Thanks,

Jon

dotnotwhat

In Site A, you can use PHP's fopen() and fread() functions to read the contents of the page on Site B and use it for your own devices.

fopen() can use a URL for it's filename argument.

Cheers,
Steven

Roger_Ramjet

Well, as it tells you in the Manual provided your php.ini options are set right, you can open and include files from a URL just as you would from the local filesystem.

dotnotwhat

One point with my above post... relative URLs within the Site B page would need to be translated to full URLs.

e.g.

../img/logo.gif may work fine in Site B.

When imported into Site A, it won't find (unless you put it there) that path relative to your Site A page. You'd need to look for all relative paths in Site B page and convert them to full URLS.

dungdeveloper

Very great . this is my current problem too !

Jon12345

This might affect things a little. The content I want included is on a Windows server in my office. It is a Form but it runs on asp. Would this actually run ok? Would the include mean the form is processed on my server using asp?

dotnotwhat

Using fread() to read the content of Site B page to use in Site A page is only processing the HTML. If a form exists in that HTML, then that will also be read and should display fine in Site A page.

However, the form action will need to reference the full URL of the form processing script in Site B (doesn't matter that it is ASP). What happens next is determined by the ASP script on Site B.

If you need the form processing to actually happen on Site A, then you need to copy over the relevant processing scripts from Site B to Site A. As Site B is ASP and Site A is PHP, you'll need to rewrite these in PHP.

Roger_Ramjet

Or use IIS and install PHP on it.

Jon12345

Ok, let me give a little more explanation....

Currently, Site A on Host A has a link to a form that resides on my server, which is an enquiry form and is in asp. So, when they click the link to submit an enquiry, they are taken to my server. Then they fill in the form, click submit and they are taken to another form on my server. This has a browse button so they can then find their file, click submit again and their file is uploaded to my server, in my office.

I would like exactly the same functionality except that the url looks as though they are staying on the same site on Host A. i.e. I don't want them to know they are actually being taken to my server with a different url. Does that make sense? Is that possible?

dotnotwhat

Replicating the form in Site A should be no trouble, it's just HTML. When the form is submitted (to Site B as the processing ASP is on Site 😎 you're totally in the hands of Site B. You could possibly come up with some clever ASP coding on Site B that knows when Site A was used to submit the form and then try and hand back to Site A somehow, but it seems like a nasty hack of a method.

Your best bet seems to replicate the actual processing so that you never need to use Site B (apart from it's database maybe). Or... just use Site B in the first place.

dotnotwhat

Or... could you get away with using a frameset on Site A that displays the relevant Site B pages within a frame? That way the browser address bar will always appear to be Site A.

Jon12345

Well, the form has to be on the server in my office as there are some special scripts that run there, databases and also the file needs to end up there.

What about using a subdomain and some kind of redirect? Or that and a combination of iframes or SSI?

dotnotwhat

iframes should work ok. That, or normal frameset sounds like easiest, cleanest and most robust way of doing it.

You could also set a subdomain of Site A to point to same as Site B's domain, effectively making Site B look like it is part of Site A.

As far as PHP is concerned, I'd forget it. It would be a whole lot easier to modify Site B so that it is designed to be used from within external sites.

Jon12345

If I use the subdomain method, will the url still show as subdomain.maindomain.com even when I use a subdomain redirect using CPanel?

Roger_Ramjet

Ordinarily, yes a subdomain will be reflected in the url

subdomain.mydomain.com

which for most people would not be a problem - they mostly don't begin to understand this even when they are typing it into the address bar.

If it is a real issue for you then the best fix is a mod-rewrite to make site B appear as site A in the url.

Of course that requires access and control over .htaccess , whicj many people don't get on shared hosting cos the host is already doin mod-rewrites all over their virtual servers.

Jon12345

I'm using a subdomain with a redirect as my solution. Thanks all!