IMDB Grabber PHP

Question

I am recieving an error:

Notice: Undefined variable: content in C:\wamp\www\includes\imdbgrabber.php on line 17

When using this code:

<?php
//url
$url = 'http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367882/';

//get the page content
$imdb_content = get_data($url);

//parse for product name
$name = get_match('/<title>(.*)<\/title>/isU',$imdb_content);
$director = strip_tags(get_match('/<h5[^>]*>Director:<\/h5>(.*)<\/div>/isU',$imdb_content));
$plot = get_match('/<h5[^>]*>Plot:<\/h5>(.*)<\/div>/isU',$imdb_content);
$release_date = get_match('/<h5[^>]*>Release Date:<\/h5>(.*)<\/div>/isU',$imdb_content);
$mpaa = get_match('/<a href="\/mpaa">MPAA<\/a>:<\/h5>(.*)<\/div>/isU',$imdb_content);
$run_time = get_match('/Runtime:<\/h5>(.*)<\/div>/isU',$imdb_content);

//build content


line 17 -->  $content.= '<h2>Film</h2><p>'.$name.'</p>';
    $content.= '<h2>Director</h2><p>'.$director.'</p>';
    $content.= '<h2>Plot</h2><p>'.substr($plot,0,strpos($plot,'<a')).'</p>';
    $content.= '<h2>Release Date</h2><p>'.substr($release_date,0,strpos($release_date,'<a')).'</p>';
    $content.= '<h2>MPAA</h2><p>'.$mpaa.'</p>';
    $content.= '<h2>Run Time</h2><p>'.$run_time.'</p>';
    $content.= '<h2>Full Details</h2><p><a href="'.$url.'" rel="nofollow">'.$url.'</a></p>';

    echo $content;

//gets the match content
function get_match($regex,$content)
{
    preg_match($regex,$content,$matches);
    return $matches[1];
}

//gets the data from a URL
function get_data($url)
{
    $ch = curl_init();
    $timeout = 5;
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL,$url);
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT,$timeout);
    $data = curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close($ch);
    return $data;
}
?>

Answer 1

You are trying to add something to the variable $content when it doesn't exist yet, this naturally triggers an error.

Try replacing $content.= with $content= in line 17.

Answer 2

You are appending content to a variable that doesn't exist. Change line 17 to an assignment:

$content = '<h2>Film</h2><p>'.$name.'</p>';

You could also change that section of code to the following, which is slightly neater:

$content = '<h2>Film</h2><p>'.$name.'</p>'
         . '<h2>Director</h2><p>'.$director.'</p>'
         . '<h2>Plot</h2><p>'.substr($plot,0,strpos($plot,'<a')).'</p>'
      // etc

Answer 3

Apart from what others have said there is another issue with your code that needs attention. You are not checking the return value of preg_match before you return the value from the function get_match. You should do something like:

if(preg_match($regex,$content,$matches))
  return $matches[1];
else
  // return some default

Answer 4

You're not receiving an error, you're receiving a notice because you try to concatenate something to a variable that does not exist. Remove the dot from .= at line 17 or put $content = '' before line 17.