PHP - Can't consume web services

Question

I've been trying to access google maps webservices or even yahoo maps using PHP. When i run it, i get nothing. All the html and prints come out but absolutely nothing from Google service.

When i gave the code to my friend to run it on his local pc, it showed up fine and was working showing the map. But it seems i have trouble here at university

is it because i am behind a proxy? what could be the issue? Also the host can't be accessed outside the university.

Is there any solution to this?

Answer 1

If it is getting stuck on simplexml_load_file, and you are trying to use simplexml_load_file to get a remote file, and your University (like mine) has PHP in safe mode, this will fail. You can't get remote files like that in safe-mode. You should get the XML via cURL, and then use simplexml_load_string.

This would also explain why your friend could do it and you couldn't.