[pmwiki-users] remote fopen versus curl get?

marc gmane at auxbuss.com
Tue Jan 30 09:19:14 CST 2007


marc said...
> Russ Fink said...
> > Russ Fink wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I have a problem on your site with my wiki.  The RSS feeds don't work on the 
> > following page:
> > 
> > http://finalscoretrivia.com/Main/DailyTrivia
> > 
> > Further, the map links don't work on this page:
> > 
> > http://finalscoretrivia.com/MD/Locations
> > 
> > In both cases, my wiki software is trying to go out and fetch data from the 
> > web and populate the form.  Is there some security feature that is set that 
> > is disabling this access?  What is the workaround?
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > Russ Fink
> >
> > ----
> > Russ,
> > 
> > Remote fopen is denied in PHP, if that is what the wiki is using. This 
> > prevents almost all of the typical 'hacks' that script kiddies use against 
> > people's php-based software / forums / etc.
> > 
> > Is there a different way that the wiki can fetch that data? If they use a 
> > curl get, it'd work fine. There may be a way to configure it to not use 
> > remote fopen (if that is how it is doing it).
> > ----
> >
> > Does anyone know what this guy is talking about?  New hosting provider...
> 
> Best not to top post when the thread needs to be followed.
> 
> What he's saying is that, in their setup, the PHP fopen() function 
> cannot be used to access remote sites. This technique is often used for 
> 'scraping' a site for data. This is actually a very useful thing to be 
> able to do, but I think it is common for shared services to block it, 
> which is daft, imo. (It saves them effort, but shifts the problem to the 
> honest user.)
> 
> If you take a look at phpinfo() for your site, you will see that 
> allow_url_fopen is set off. 
> 
> If you are using fopen() in the cases you mention, then your host is 
> saying that it isn't going to work, because they've blocked it.
> 
> He then suggests an alternative technique to do the same thing. This 
> begs the obvious question of why block fopen()! 

I meant to add that Curl is a simple alternative for scraping-type apps. 
I found a 101 guide that might help:

    http://wiki.dreamhost.com/index.php/CURL

-- 
Cheers,
Marc




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