PHP: Download file from different web server using basic authentication?

Question

I have been using PHP for a while but I am not too too advanced. I do not have much experience with server-to-server stuff. I need to research setting up a data-feed with a vendor. The contact person that I talked to said I would be downloading a file from their server using a username and password via basic authentication. Can someone please give me a break down on how to do that?

Thanks!!

Answer 1

They probably mean using a SOAP API, this format uses (usually) a username/password + function call to get / post data from the service. Do a search on php SOAP, or nusoap, etc. That should give you enough to get started.

I would however get a solid 'name' of the service to use. I am assuming here for you that its SOAP as that is what I am most familiar with from personal usage.

Edit: Unless by 'basic authentication' they mean: http://us.php.net/manual/en/features.http-auth.php

Answer 2

Consists in placing this request header in the HTTP request:

$login = "havenard";
$pass  = "my l33t p4ssw0rd";

$header = "Authorization: Basic " . base64_encode("{$login}:{$pass}");

Now how you're going to put it there will depend on the methods you are using to make this connection.

Answer 3

I assume that the person means something like HTTPAuth, which is when a username/password box pops up when going to a page in your browser, and you're required to give credentials before the content is loaded.

For this, you can use CURL. PHP has a nice set of curl functions for handling this. You'll need to configure it with the CURLOPT_NETRC option.

Answer 4

$f = fopen("http://$username:[email protected]");

then just use the same methods as for manipulating files, eg. fread, fgets, fclose, etc.

Answer 5

I think that if they told you to "download a file", you might be looking to implement a cURL based solution: PHP: cURL - Manual

And you can use the header request that Havenard listed in his post:

$login = "havenard";
$pass  = "my l33t p4ssw0rd";
$auth = "Authorization: Basic " . base64_encode("{$login}:{$pass}");