HTTP requests with file_get_contents, getting the response code - php

Question

I'm trying to use file_get_contents together with stream_context_create to make POST requests. My code so far:
$options = array('http' => array(
'method' => 'POST',
'content' => $data,
'header' =>
"Content-Type: text/plain\r\n" .
"Content-Length: " . strlen($data) . "\r\n"
));
$context = stream_context_create($options);
$response = file_get_contents($url, false, $context);
It works fine, however, when an HTTP error occurs, it spits out a warning:
file_get_contents(...): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 400 Bad Request
and returns false. Is there a way to:
suppress a warning (I'm planning to throw my own exception in case of failure)
obtain the error information (at least, the response code) from the stream

Answer 1

http://php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.httpresponseheader.php
$context = stream_context_create(['http' => ['ignore_errors' => true]]);
$result = file_get_contents("http://example.com", false, $context);
var_dump($http_response_header);

Answer 2

None of the answers (including the one accepted by OP) actually satisfy the two requirements:
suppress a warning (I'm planning to throw my own exception in case of failure)
obtain the error information (at least, the response code) from the stream
Here's my take:
function fetch(string $method, string $url, string $body, array $headers = []) {
$context = stream_context_create([
"http" => [
// http://docs.php.net/manual/en/context.http.php
"method" => $method,
"header" => implode("\r\n", $headers),
"content" => $body,
"ignore_errors" => true,
],
]);
$response = file_get_contents($url, false, $context);
/**
* #var array $http_response_header materializes out of thin air
*/
$status_line = $http_response_header[0];
preg_match('{HTTP\/\S*\s(\d{3})}', $status_line, $match);
$status = $match[1];
if ($status !== "200") {
throw new RuntimeException("unexpected response status: {$status_line}\n" . $response);
}
return $response;
}
This will throw for a non-200 response, but you can easily work from there, e.g. add a simple Response class and return new Response((int) $status, $response); if that fits your use-case better.
For example, to do a JSON POST to an API endpoint:
$response = fetch(
"POST",
"http://example.com/",
json_encode([
"foo" => "bar",
]),
[
"Content-Type: application/json",
"X-API-Key: 123456789",
]
);
Note the use of "ignore_errors" => true in the http context map - this will prevent the function from throwing errors for non-2xx status codes.
This is most likely the "right" amount of error-suppression for most use-cases - I do not recommend using the # error-suppression operator, as this will also suppress errors like simply passing the wrong arguments, which could inadvertently hide a bug in calling code.

Answer 3

Adding few more lines to the accepted response to get the http code
function getHttpCode($http_response_header)
{
if(is_array($http_response_header))
{
$parts=explode(' ',$http_response_header[0]);
if(count($parts)>1) //HTTP/1.0 <code> <text>
return intval($parts[1]); //Get code
}
return 0;
}
#file_get_contents("http://example.com");
$code=getHttpCode($http_response_header);
to hide the error output both comments are ok, ignore_errors = true or # (I prefer #)

Answer 4

To capture the error message when file_get_contents returns FALSE, write a function which uses ob_start and ob_get_contents to capture the error message that file_get_contents writes to stderr.
function fileGetContents( $fileName )
{
$errmsg = '' ;
ob_start( ) ;
$contents = file_get_contents( $fileName );
if ( $contents === FALSE )
{
$errmsg = ob_get_contents( ) ;
$errmsg .= "\nfile name:$fileName";
$contents = '' ;
}
ob_end_clean( ) ;
return (object)[ 'errmsg' => $errmsg, 'contents' => $contents ];
}

Answer 5

I go to this page with kind of a different issue, so posting my answer. My problem was that I was just trying to suppress the warning notification and display a customized warning message for the user, so this simple and obvious fix helped me:
// Suppress the warning messages
error_reporting(0);
$contents = file_get_contents($url);
if ($contents === false) {
print 'My warning message';
}
And if needed, turn back error reporting after that:
// Enable warning messages again
error_reporting(-1);

Answer 6

#file_get_contents and ignore_errors = true are not the same:
the first doesn't return anything;
the second suppresses error messages, but returns server response (e.g. 400 Bad request).
I use a function like this:
$result = file_get_contents(
$url_of_API,
false,
stream_context_create([
'http' => [
'content' => json_encode(['value1' => $value1, 'value2' => $value2]),
'header' => 'Authorization: Basic XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
'ignore_errors' => 1,
'method' => 'POST',
'timeout' => 10
]
])
);
return json_decode($result)->status;
It returns 200 (Ok) or 400 (Bad request).
It works perfectly and it's easier than cURL.