file_get_contents subtitute function or methods ?

Question

In one's server, file_get_contents is disabled for security reasons. I need to retrieve xml data. So, what is the best thing to do to :

1. Verify that file_get_contents is supported by a server ?
2. Is there any subtitute methods of file_get_contents ?

Answer 1

You can check whether or not you can use url's in file_get_contents() (and the fopen() family of functions) by checking the ini directive allow_url_fopen:

ini_get('allow_url_fopen'); 

You can get around these restrictions by using:

1. cURL
2. fsockopen()

I strongly recommend cURL. fsockopen() is a lot dirtier.

Answer 2

http://www.phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?t=10349521 - this seems to be a releavant topic

I would try to use simply fopen and fread functions.

First approach:

$bufferSize = 1024;
$file = fopen($file,'r');
while($cont = fread($file, $bufferSize)){
 $file_content .= $cont;
}
fclose($file);

var_dump($file_content);

Second approach:

$filename = "/usr/local/something.txt";
$handle = fopen($filename, "r");
$contents = fread($handle, filesize($filename));
fclose($handle);