file_get_contents - "Use of undefined constant code - assumed 'code'" - php

Question

I'm trying to add a basic new-grabber for a site I'm making and cannot figure out for the life of me what is causing this error. The file I'm grabbing is a plain-text file, completely accessible.
I've seen it posted before and the OP is calling something like:
$var = $data[str] instead of $var = $data['src']
But I am not calling anything with "code" in the name.
I receive this error upon running my code:
HTTP request failed. Error 8 on line 123: Use of undefined constant
code - assumed 'code' in file /usr/local/lib/php/head.php
Here is my entire file below:
<?
$e_news = file_get_contents("http://cinemattson.com/templates/flickfeed/news.txt");
if (!$e_news === true) {
$error = error_get_last();
echo "HTTP request failed. Error " . $error['type'] . " on line " . $error['line'] . ": " . $error['message'] . " in file " . $error['file'] . "<br>";
} else {
echo "Everything went better than expected";
}
if ($e_news === true) {
$news = explode("|", $e_news);?>
<h4>News - <? echo (!empty($news) ? $news[1] : "v0.0.1");?> <small><? echo (!empty($news) ? $news[0] : "5/22/2016");?></small></h4>
<p><? echo (!empty($news) ? $news[2] : "Loading news failed, or there is currently no news.");?></p>
<?
} else {
echo "<h4>News failed to load</h4>";
}
?>
Do you guys know what I'm missing or doing wrong here?

Answer 1

As already suggested by #John Stirling, "the issue is elsewhere".
More precisely the reported Error 8 on line 123... etc is related to an error that happened previously, elsewhere.
And your current code is responsible to make this error appear now because you wrote:
$e_news = file_get_contents("http://cinemattson.com/templates/flickfeed/news.txt");
if (!$e_news === true) {
$error = error_get_last();
This way, the following happens:
Each time file_get_contents() is successfull, $e_news gets its content.
Then $e_news === true is FALSE (even if this content is empty, because you used ===), and if (!$e_news === true) is always TRUE.
So there is no error now, and your error_get_last() gets the trace of the last error that previously happened, elsewhere...
In fact, for your code to work as expected you should rather do something like this:
$e_news = file_get_contents("http://cinemattson.com/templates/flickfeed/news.txt");
if ($e_news === false) {
$error = error_get_last();
echo "HTTP request failed. Error " . $error['type'] . " on line " . $error['line'] . ": " . $error['message'] . " in file " . $error['file'] . "<br>";
echo "<h4>News failed to load</h4>";
} else {
echo "Everything went better than expected";
$news = explode("|", $e_news);?>
<h4>News - <? echo (!empty($news) ? $news[1] : "v0.0.1");?> <small><? echo (!empty($news) ? $news[0] : "5/22/2016");?></small></h4>
<p><? echo (!empty($news) ? $news[2] : "Loading news failed, or there is currently no news.");?></p>
<?
}