List of Supported Protocols/Wrappers
A note on how to deal with Cookies
To receive a cookie:
$httphandle = fopen($url,"r");
$meta = stream_get_meta_data($httphandle);
for ($j = 0; isset($meta['wrapper_data'][$j]); $j++) {
$httpline = $meta['wrapper_data'][$j];
@list($header,$parameters) = explode(";",$httpline,2);
@list($attr,$value) = explode(":",$header,2);
if (strtolower(trim($attr)) == "set-cookie") {
$cookie = trim($value);
break;
}
}
fclose($httphandle);
echo $cookie;
To send a cookie:
$user_agent = ini_get("user_agent");
ini_set("user_agent",$user_agent . "\r\nCookie: " . $cookie);
$httphandle = fopen($url,"r");
fclose($httphandle);
ini_set("user_agent",$user_agent);
HTTP and HTTPS
PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 6. https:// since PHP 4.3.0
- http://example.com
- http://example.com/file.php?var1=val1&var2=val2
- http://user:password@example.com
- https://example.com
- https://example.com/file.php?var1=val1&var2=val2
- https://user:password@example.com
Allows read-only access to files/resources via HTTP 1.0, using the HTTP GET method. A Host: header is sent with the request to handle name-based virtual hosts. If you have configured a user_agent string using your ini file or the stream context, it will also be included in the request.
Warning
When using SSL, Microsoft IIS will violate the protocol by closing the connection without sending a close_notify indicator. PHP will report this as "SSL: Fatal Protocol Error" when you reach the end of the data. To work around this, the value of error_reporting should be lowered to a level that does not include warnings. PHP 4.3.7 and higher can detect buggy IIS server software when you open the stream using the https:// wrapper and will suppress the warning. When using fsockopen() to create an ssl:// socket, the developer is responsible for detecting and suppressing this warning.
Redirects have been supported since PHP 4.0.5; if you are using an earlier version you will need to include trailing slashes in your URLs. If it's important to know the URL of the resource where your document came from (after all redirects have been processed), you'll need to process the series of response headers returned by the stream.
<?php
$url = 'http://www.example.com/redirecting_page.php';
$fp = fopen($url, 'r');
/* Prior to PHP 4.3.0 use $http_response_header
instead of stream_get_meta_data() */
$meta_data = stream_get_meta_data($fp);
foreach($meta_data['wrapper_data'] as $response) {
/* Were we redirected? */
if (substr(strtolower($response), 0, 10) == 'location: ') {
/* update $url with where we were redirected to */
$url = substr($response, 18);
}
}
?>
The stream allows access to the body of the resource; the headers are stored in the $http_response_header variable. Since PHP 4.3.0, the headers are available using stream_get_meta_data().
HTTP connections are read-only; you cannot write data or copy files to an HTTP resource.
Note: HTTPS is supported starting from PHP 4.3.0, if you have compiled in support for OpenSSL.
| Attribute | Supported |
|---|---|
| Restricted by allow_url_fopen | Yes |
| Allows Reading | Yes |
| Allows Writing | No |
| Allows Appending | No |
| Allows Simultaneous Reading and Writing | N/A |
| Supports stat() | No |
| Supports unlink() | No |
| Supports rename() | No |
| Supports mkdir() | No |
| Supports rmdir() | No |
Custom headers may be sent with an HTTP request prior to version 5 by taking advantage of a side-effect in the handling of the user_agent INI setting. Set user_agent to any valid string (such as the default PHP/version setting) followed by a carriage-return/line-feed pair and any additional headers. This method works in PHP 4 and all later versions.
Example #1 Sending custom headers with an HTTP request
<?php
ini_set('user_agent', "PHP\r\nX-MyCustomHeader: Foo");
$fp = fopen('http://www.example.com/index.php', 'r');
?>
Results in the following request being sent:
GET /index.php HTTP/1.0 Host: www.example.com User-Agent: PHP X-MyCustomHeader: Foo
add a note
User Contributed NotesHTTP and HTTPS
Nick Lewis
26-Jun-2008 01:17
26-Jun-2008 01:17
spazdaq
24-Oct-2007 12:27
24-Oct-2007 12:27
just an FYI about digest authentication.
While one of the above http examples has the username and password info supplied with the url, this must only be for basic authentication. it does not appear to work for digest authentication. you have to handle the digest followup request on your own.
NEA at AraTaraBul dot com
30-Jul-2007 01:06
30-Jul-2007 01:06
HTTP post function;
<?php
function post_it($datastream, $url) {
$url = preg_replace("@^http://@i", "", $url);
$host = substr($url, 0, strpos($url, "/"));
$uri = strstr($url, "/");
$reqbody = "";
foreach($datastream as $key=>$val) {
if (!empty($reqbody)) $reqbody.= "&";
$reqbody.= $key."=".urlencode($val);
}
$contentlength = strlen($reqbody);
$reqheader = "POST $uri HTTP/1.1\r\n".
"Host: $host\n". "User-Agent: PostIt\r\n".
"Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n".
"Content-Length: $contentlength\r\n\r\n".
"$reqbody\r\n";
$socket = fsockopen($host, 80, $errno, $errstr);
if (!$socket) {
$result["errno"] = $errno;
$result["errstr"] = $errstr;
return $result;
}
fputs($socket, $reqheader);
while (!feof($socket)) {
$result[] = fgets($socket, 4096);
}
fclose($socket);
return $result;
}
?>
Sinured
28-Jun-2007 12:24
28-Jun-2007 12:24
If you want to send more than one custom header, just make header an array:
<?php
$default_opts = array(
'http' => array(
'user_agent' => 'Foobar',
'header' => array(
'X-Foo: Bar',
'X-Bar: Baz'
)
)
);
stream_context_get_default($default_opts);
readfile('http://www.xhaus.com/headers');
?>
dwalton at acm dot org
17-Nov-2006 09:18
17-Nov-2006 09:18
As it says on this page:
"The stream allows access to the body of the resource; the headers are stored in the $http_response_header variable. Since PHP 4.3.0, the headers are available using stream_get_meta_data()."
This one sentence is the only documentation I have found on the mysterious $http_response_header variable, and I'm afraid it's misleading. It implies that from 4.3.0 onward, stream_get_meta_data() ought to be used in favor of $http_response_header.
Don't be fooled! stream_get_meta_data() requires a stream reference, which makes it ONLY useful with fopen() and related functions. However, $http_response_header can be used to get the headers from the much simpler file_get_contents() and related functions, which makes it still very useful in 5.x.
Also note that even when file_get_contents() and friends fail due to a 4xx or 5xx error and return false, the headers are still available in $http_response_header.