file_get_contents : An Alternative to cURL

In my post about cURL the other day Matt mentioned that file_get_contents is a simpler method to use, and in many ways he’s right.

file_get_contents is a PHP functions that gets the contents of a file. Unlike cURL it doesn’t require any configuration so you can simply call it as so:

$data = file_get_contents('http://url_to/get_contents/from');

There are some disadvantages, a big one being that some webhosts block the function, but for really quick data retrieval this function is perfect.

Using file_get_contents the example code from my cURL demo would become:

<?php
function bm_getWeather ($code = '', $temp = 'c') {
	$file = 'http://weather.yahooapis.com/forecastrss?p=' . $code . '&u=' . $temp;

	$result = file_get_contents($file);

	$output = array (
		'temperature' => bm_getWeatherProperties('temp', $result),
		'weather' => bm_getWeatherProperties('text', $result),
		'weather_code' => bm_getWeatherProperties('code', $result),
		'class' => 'weatherIcon-' . bm_getWeatherProperties('code', $result),
	);

	return $output;
}

function bm_getWeatherProperties ($needle, $data) {
	$regex = '';
	preg_match($regex, $data, $matches);
	return $matches[1];
}