echo of 'file_get_contents' of external domain page problem

tsakali

Hello all, new to the forums, and I have run into a problem that I can't seem to get around ...K here is what I am trying to do:

this page here:
http://playmakers.ezleagues.ezfacility.com/default.aspx

basically loads a page with info pulled from a database.

But instead of just adding this page into an iframe, I want somehow be able to load the results of the page into a variable so I can then use 'str_replace' to make some changes to the layout before I echo the results on my own domain's page.

I can do this. BUT here is the problem. The 'quick stats' area of that page serves different info if a user is logged in, and my issue is that if I simply do a 'file_get_contents' it doesn't load the proper results as if someone is logged in, it just serves me the generic page it serves for anyone that is not logged in.

How can I fix this issue? how can I get the content of an external domain page but with user login data being taken under consideration.?

It seems that cURL is what I need to use,but for the life of me, I can't find a good tutorial on this issue.

Is this a simple thing that I am chasing around? do you need more info to help me out? Any help would be appreciated!

Derokorian

So what you're trying to do is violate their terms of use?

You may print a copy of the information contained herein for your personal use only, but you may not reproduce or distribute the text or graphics to others or substantially copy the information on your own server, or link to this Website, without prior written permission.

tsakali

actually no I'm not. have you read them?

tsakali

This is a league managing system my client is paying for. He is currently adding it to his website with a simple iframe. I am developing his new site,and I want to be able to freshen up the look of this EZ facility results because they don't provide any theming customization of any kind. SO I need to get around the problem myself in order to give him a better looking result that will better match the new look of the new website.

traq

tsakali;11006543 wrote:
actually no I'm not. have you read them?

It seems he quoted the relevant part. I didn't see anything that made an exception to that statement.

tsakali;11006544 wrote:
This is a league managing system my client is paying for. He is currently adding it to his website with a simple iframe. I am developing his new site,and I want to be able to freshen up the look of this EZ facility results because they don't provide any theming customization of any kind. SO I need to get around the problem myself in order to give him a better looking result that will better match the new look of the new website.

If your client has permission to use the site's content, then that's all you need to say. Many times, people ask for help to do something which violates a site's TOS (or is otherwise illegal/unethical) with the opinion that, if it is "possible," it is "permissible" - which could not be further from the truth. One might feel that what they do is "their own business and no one else's," but realize that, by contributing, we would be complicit.

Does this site belong to your client as well, or is he just a customer? The easiest solution would be to use (or implement) an API on the site that would allow you to request the page as it would appear to the user in question (e.g., "http: //example.com/ThePage?user=someuser"). Otherwise, using cURL would involve several requests - first to log in, then to get the page - and I can imagine quite a few things that might complicate things from there.

tsakali

It is an old system and the only reason they do not provide any customization on themes /css is the very fact that it is a old system which was created with little in mind when it comes to being versatile and customizable. Nothing more , nothing less.
So I need to do it on my end. I honestly don't see the moral issue here.

this system is so old, it doesn't even take under consideration bots. All it's using is a 'user' and 'password' field, and then you submit the form.

How would an API help me? is it something I can implement on my side alone?Essentially, I don't even need to get their session info or their cookies... it seems that as long as i can figure out a way for our clients to log in from our end, and send that info to their system in order to pull the right information, then that's all I need.

I would really appreciate some direction on this, and i hope you understand that I am in no way doing something questionable.

NogDog

An API would have to be implemented on the target application's side.

If you are going to use cURL, you will likely need to look at the cookiefile and cookiejar options. Also, if the login page uses SSL you'll need to set some cURL options for that, too.

tsakali

k so I figured out that cURL could do what I want, but I cannot get it to work with EZfacility login.

http://playmakers.ezleagues.ezfacility.com/login.aspx

that's the page I need to access and log in. The login page that houses the form is actually the same page that is called when you POST.

here is a very simple login form i put together to prove that the login requirements are very basic:
http://playmakersindoor.dreamhosters.com/ez_login.php

that page basically puts together a simple post and calls the login page successfully which then automatically loads some stats page.

here is my test login account:
email: superslick@cox.net
pass: qwerty

if I use that simple login form I can log in with no problems, so what I am missing MUST be something simple

here is my test page that calls the cURL operation:
http://playmakersindoor.dreamhosters.com/testcurl.php

but as you can see it's not working.
Not sure what's wrong but, the page is an .aspx page, could that have something to do with it? could it be the CURLOPT_USERAGENT or CURLOPT_REFERER or some other special case that I am not accounting for? or maybe I need to set some headers?
Is there something obvious I'm forgetting to set in my cURL call?

tsakali

k so I got it to work!

long story short, I didn't know that I also had to pass the submit button field in my posted data!

as soon as I did, I got results!