[RESOLVED] trap offsite server error 500

scrupul0us

im trying to load an offsite image... sometimes that server is down or overloaded and as a result it doesnt load the pic (ff) or loads a red x (ie)... if i copy the path and exec. the url i get a 500 error... is there a way i can trap that and display something like "Site Down" instead or seeing an image place holder or a red x?

bradgrafelman

Depends how you gett he image... if you use [man]file_get_contents/man, you can simply test if it returns FALSE.

scrupul0us

i dont... but can u post a simple example of using file_get_contents to display an image

theres no actual image extension on the url... would be like:

http://fakedomain.com/img?mode=trans&param1=1&param2=this

scrupul0us

$url = '';
$img = @file_get_contents($url);

if (isset($img))
{
	echo "<ul><li>Feed Unavailable</li></ul>";
}
else
{
echo $img;
}

is that the correct usage for displaying the image in the else structure? the site is still down so i havent been able to test that portion... the first half works GREAT tho... that was a really good idea

bradgrafelman

Well, $img will always be set when the code reaches your if() statement, regardless of whether or not the image was actually retrieved. What you want to do is test if it has a value of FALSE, or simply:

if(!$img) {

Now, I'm sure someone will come along and say, "That doesn't test if it's false, that just tests if it's FALSE, NULL, 0, "0", ..." and suggest instead:

if($img === FALSE) {

or something, but... whatever. :p Of course, yet another suggestion might be to create your own error handler instead of using the '@' error suppressor, though I don't see anything wrong with it in this context.