[SOLVED] reading partial code from external site

[daveh33]

Hi,

 

I am trying to write a script for my website to get an article from an external website. The external website has the article in a set of tags <roottag> & </roottag>

 

The code I am using is

$page = file_get_contents($url);
preg_match_all("/<roottag>.+<\/roottag>/", $page, $matches);
print_r($matches);

 

when this code runs the below is output: -

 

Array ( [0] => Array ( ) )

 

I've not used this function in php and am a bit stuck! so any help is really appreciated

[lemmin]

Try like this:

preg_match_all("/<roottag>(.+?)<\/roottag>/", $page, $matches);

[daveh33]

Thanks - I have changed that line of code and the output is now: -

 

Array ( [0] => Array ( ) [1] => Array ( ) )

[PFMaBiSmAd]

Either $page is empty or it does not contain the <roottag> </roottag> tags.

 

Have you echoed $page to see exactly what is in it?

[daveh33]

yes - when I echo $page it loads the entire webpage where the article is. When I view the source I can see the <roottag> </roottag> tags

[lemmin]

Can you post the code, then? I think PFMaBiSmAd is correct in that your input is not what you expect because the regex should work.

[daveh33]

<?

$url = "http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/other_sports/racing/1142207/Templegates-racing-tips.html";
$page = file_get_contents($url);

// echo $page;

preg_match_all("/<roottag>(.+?)<\/roottag>/", $page, $matches);
print_r($matches);


?>

[lemmin]

Oh sorry, it is because of the new lines. Put the 's' modifier into your regex:

preg_match_all("/<roottag>(.+?)<\/roottag>/s", $page, $matches);

[Alex]

try:

 

<?php
$url = "http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/other_sports/racing/1142207/Templegates-racing-tips.html";
$page = file_get_contents($url);
preg_match_all("~\<roottag\>(.+?)\<\/roottag\>~s", $page, $matches);
print_r($matches);
?>

 

edit: Late

[daveh33]

:-) I can see the article!

 

But it still has 'Array ( [0] => Array ( [0] =>' at the start, it's also looping and showing it twice...

[lemmin]

That is because $matches in an array. The first value in the array is the full string that it matched and the second is the string inside of the parentheses in the regex. To use the string, you can just echo $matches[1].

[daveh33]

Thats what I thought, I've changed the echo/print

 

// print_r($matches);
echo $matches[1];

 

but it just displays 'Array'

[daveh33]

....I have changed the function to preg_match instead of preg_match_all and its working perfectly thank you so much for your help everyone! much appreciated!!!