Unable to reach site in PHP with GET

Question

Whenever I visit this URL in my browser, it works fine and the file uploads to my account:

http://api.imgur.com/2/upload.json?key=<my key>&image=<url to image>

But when I attempt to retrieve it in PHP with something like file_get_contents, I get this error message:

Warning: file_get_contents(<URL>): failed to open stream:
HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request

You can see an example with this URL: http://api.imgur.com/2/upload.json?key=&image=https://www.google.com/images/srpr/logo3w.png

Edit: I also attempted to use a user agent but to no avail.

Curious, what happens when you run wget THATURL from the prompt? (assuming you're using linux) — ajacian81, Jan 05 '13 at 02:30
`HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 400 Bad Request`. What does this mean? — UserIsCorrupt, Jan 05 '13 at 02:31
Forgot to mention in my original post that I attempted to do this but it didn't work. — UserIsCorrupt, Jan 05 '13 at 02:37
Does `file_get_contents` want to retrieve data through `http` or `https`? — Zaffy, Jan 05 '13 at 02:37
Duplicate? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3710147/php-get-content-of-http-400-response and/or http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3535799/file-get-contents-failed-to-open-stream? — apsillers, Jan 05 '13 at 03:00

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 05 '13 at 02:31

1

Bad request mostly means that one the parameters you gave are wrong. What I always do is test the API by sending a request from my webbrowser. I test the URL and check the result.

answered Jan 05 '13 at 02:31

Jordi Kroon

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I did this, I checked that URL in my browser and it worked fine, then I attempted to use retrieve it in PHP and got that error. – UserIsCorrupt Jan 05 '13 at 02:33

Shehabic · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-05T03:04:31.500

1

Use curl, it could be simply url_fopen is disabled in your php

it also gives you full control to change user-agent

Use this code:

function getContentWithCurl($url){
        $ch = curl_init();
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
        // Set so curl_exec returns the result instead of outputting it.
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT , ">>>PUT_USER_AGENT_HERE<<<" );
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true );
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS, 5);

        // Get the response and close the channel.
        $response = curl_exec($ch);
        curl_close($ch);
        return $response;
    }

getContentWithCurl( "YOUR_URL_HERE" );

edited Jan 05 '13 at 03:04

answered Jan 05 '13 at 02:53

Shehabic

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This worked, I'm not too familiar with `curl` but I've been meaning to explore it more; this is a reason to start, I guess. Thanks! – UserIsCorrupt Jan 05 '13 at 03:01
Why does curl work even with bad request and file_get_contents doesn't? – Angel Jan 05 '13 at 03:06
If allow_url_fopen = Off file_get_contents is allowed to open local files only, I think this is the case here – Shehabic Jan 05 '13 at 03:08

Unable to reach site in PHP with GET

2 Answers2