XML file caching - advice

[BarmyArmy]

Please can somebody advise me on the following:

Is it possible to use PHP to schedule my webserver to fetch XML files from various external URL's and overwrite them in a designated directory? I don't want to change the format of the xml file, just automatically update it on my server everyday.

Is this possible?
If yes, can anybody suggest any script or offer some advice on how to create my own - TIA.

[mjax]

Reading a remote file with PHP and storing it localy is actually very easy:

$remote_filename = 'htp://www.somesite.com/somedir/somefile.xml';
$local_filename = '/usr/local/somefile.xml';
file_put_contents($local_filename, file_get_contents($remote_filename));

You could schedule this using a standard cron job.

[BarmyArmy]

Thankyou for the prompt reply.

I tried the code you sent me but got the following error:

*Fatal error: Call to undefined function: file_put_contents() in my.website.com/test.php on line 5***

Please can somebody help me with the error above?

I think using a CRON job entry won't be allowed as it's on a hosted service.
I may have to look into running the command from a button or if a page on the site is accessed.

[mjax]

file_put_contents() is PHP5 only, so you are probably running PHP4. Try this code:

$remote_filename = 'htp://www.somesite.com/somedir/somefile.xml';
$local_filename = '/usr/local/somefile.xml';
$fp = fopen($local_filename, 'w');
fputs($fp, file_get_contents($remote_filename));
fclose($fp);

[BarmyArmy]

WOW...your fast.

I have just checked up with the hosting services:

Perl - v5.8.0
PHP - 4.3.10
ASP - Sun Java ASP 4.0.2

So looks like I'll have to ask for a later version to be uploaded.

In the meantime I will attempt to test your code this weekend and tell you how I got on.

Cheers.

[mjax]

PHP 4.3.0 will support the last code I suggested.

[BarmyArmy]

Excellent. I tested it and it works a treat.

If I want to add extra addresses to pull the files down then I just repeat code and fill in the necessary details as needed? Then the next step would be to make this active on either a button or a page being accessed.
Cheers.

[mjax]

BarmyArmy wrote:

If I want to add extra addresses to pull the files down then I just repeat code and fill in the necessary details as needed?

Yes.