PHP file_get_contents returning false

Question

Maybe I've been sat here too long staring at this but WHY would file_get_contents return false here? I've cut and paste the URL and it works fine?

$url = "http://jobs.github.com/positions.json?search=" . $as_any . "&location=" .       $location;
// URL contains http://jobs.github.com/positions.json?search=Project Manager&location=London
var_dump($url);
$json = file_get_contents($url);
var_dump($json);
$results = json_decode($json, TRUE);
var_dump($results);
exit;

EDIT:

I have checked for allow_url_fopen and its definitely on.

possible duplicate of [Problem in getting contents/ files using file\_get\_contents from url or Problem in reverse geo coding](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6954220/problem-in-getting-contents-files-using-file-get-contents-from-url-or-problem-i) — mario, Feb 10 '13 at 20:01

score 16 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 10 '13 at 20:27

16

Try this:

$query = http_build_query(array('search'=>$as_any, 'location'=>$location));
$url = "http://jobs.github.com/positions.json?" . $query;

The problem is that you weren't URL-encoding the search term, which contains a space. The request was returning a 400 error from the server, which you'd have noticed if you had error reporting enabled.

answered Feb 10 '13 at 20:27

Barmar

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3

In short, I love you..I did try doing $url = urlencode(....) but that didn't seem to work, whats the difference? – Mrk Fldig Feb 10 '13 at 20:35
1

That will encode all the delimiter characters in the URL, so they won't be recognized as delimiters. – Barmar Feb 10 '13 at 20:37

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 10 '13 at 19:59

10

You may need to enable allow_url_fopen in your php.ini

http://www.php.net/manual/en/filesystem.configuration.php#ini.allow-url-fopen

From the documentation:

This option enables the URL-aware fopen wrappers that enable accessing URL object like files.

Your server may be preventing you from opening a file located at a URL using file_get_contents.

answered Feb 10 '13 at 19:59

Julio

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Currently /etc/php.ini has allow_url_fopen = On – Mrk Fldig Feb 10 '13 at 20:04
if file_get_contents() returning false then it could not read the file. If the value is NULL then the function itself is disabled. – Nikhil Mk Nov 07 '17 at 08:36
Seems not true @NikhilMk, I got false but after enabling I got the data – Fanky Sep 26 '21 at 08:27

score 9 · Answer 3 · answered May 07 '21 at 12:09

9

In my case replace file_get_contents() on this simple function

function get_content($URL){
    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $URL);
    $data = curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close($ch);
    return $data;
}

answered May 07 '21 at 12:09

Ruslan Novikov

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Brother You Saved My Life – Prince Hamza Jul 07 '21 at 11:23
Thanks, you saved me :) – Mahdi Bashirpour Oct 17 '21 at 18:31
no idea why but this totally works! – Pierre-Verthume Larivière Mar 27 '23 at 17:54

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 10 '13 at 20:00

6

Probably allow_url_fopen in your php.ini: http://php.net/manual/en/filesystem.configuration.php

Needs to be allowed.

answered Feb 10 '13 at 20:00

Emery King

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 09 '16 at 18:04

1

Sometimes if file_get_contents return false (not found) you should see if the url is encoded.

example:

http://test.net/демо/

Should be:

https://test.net/%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%BE/

answered Dec 09 '16 at 18:04

vencedor

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PHP file_get_contents returning false

5 Answers5

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