PHP web fetching ?

[jd2007]

what php built-in functions are usually used for web fetching ?

[cooldude832]

fetching? as in getting data off a url? try fopen or cURL or socket type connection if you are trying to get info off an outside server

fopen(opens a doc post processing and you get the doc's entire length (tricky,copy right infractions, but can be useful at times)

cURL(sends info off to a processor type page and returns with info back. (good for like stock look ups)

socket(makes a connection to a server and can extract data from flat files (paypal uses this for IPN in which data is stored in flat files for cross language use

[rtpmatt]

I think you might be looking for snoopy:

 

http://sourceforge.net/projects/snoopy/

 

hope that helps.

 

-matt

[Glyde]

There really is no need for anything like snoopy.  You can create your own sockets or curl connections fairly simply.

 

Try something like:

 

<?php
function getPageData($pageurl) {
     $_url  = parse_url($pageurl);
     $port = strtolower($_url['scheme']) == 'https' ? 443 : 80;
     $_sck = fsockopen($_url['host'], $port, $errNo, $errStr);
     if (!$_sck)
     {
           die("Socket error [#$errNo]: $errStr");
     }
     $path = $_url['path'] . '?' . $_url['query'];
     $request = "GET $path HTTP/1.1\r\n";
     $request .= ($port == 443) ? "Host: {$_url['host']}\r\n";
     $request .= "Connection: close\r\n\r\n";
     fputs($_sck, $request, strlen($request));
     $response = '';
     while (!feof($_sck))
     {
          $response .= fgets($_sck, 1024);
     }
     echo $response;
}
getPageData('http://google.com/index.html');
?>

Tested, works, and a hell of a lot smaller than snoopy.  Granted it doesn't have the features, but if all you need is to pull data from a website...there you go.  Actually, there's also a much much easier way:

 

<?php
print implode("\n", file("http://google.com/index.html"));
?>

But that won't always work.  You shouldn't have a problem with sockets.

[infid3l]

You can even use file_get_contents for simple GET requests!

 

<?php
       print file_get_contents("http://www.google.com");
?>

[Glyde]

You can even use file_get_contents for simple GET requests!

 

<?php
       print file_get_contents("http://www.google.com");
?>

Yes, but it's PHP5 only, which is why I did the file() example in mine...backwards compatibility.