Read URL Content in javascript using php - php

Question

I want to read the content of a URL in javascript. The URL is not on my domain so I need a middle layer that can access cross domain.
I tried to use a PHP function to read the URL and return the result to javascript using jquery but it didn't work.
Here is my trial:
I created a php file named "phpjs_test.php"
<?php
function get_data(){
$url='http://asmary.dreameg.com/texttable.txt';
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_BINARYTRANSFER, true);
$content = curl_exec($ch);
$content = htmlspecialchars($content);
curl_close($ch);
$content = nl2br($content);
return $content;
}
?>
and this is the javascript code:
<script>
$(document).ready(function () {
//httpQuery("http://asmary.dreameg.com/texttable.txt");
getOutput();
});
function getRequest() {
var req = false;
try {
// most browsers
req = new XMLHttpRequest();
} catch (e) {
// IE
try {
req = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
} catch (e) {
// try an older version
try {
req = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
} catch (e) {
return false;
}
}
}
return req;
}
function getOutput() {
var ajax = getRequest();
ajax.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (ajax.readyState == 4) {
document.getElementById('output').innerHTML = ajax.responseText;
}
};
ajax.open("GET", "phpjs_test.php", true);
ajax.send(null);
}
I'm completely new to PHP so I don't know even the PHP function is correct or not.

Answer 1

You should just use jQuery ajax methods instead of creating XMLHTTPRequest you don't have to bother with adding more code for IE plus you're already loading the jQuery library. Also if you set the header to Allow-Origin-Access in your PHP file and specify the other domain you're requesting from then you can make an AJAX request and get the response otherwise it will return nothing or in your dev tools network tab it will show a 403 - Forbidden.
Access-Control-Allow-Origin syntax

Answer 2

Change the PHP file to:
<?php
$url='http://asmary.dreameg.com/texttable.txt';
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$content = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
$content = explode('~',$content);
foreach($content as $c)
{
$records[] = explode('|',$c);
}
$content = json_encode($records);
echo $content;
?>
Javascript will receive a json array like this
[["1","name1","10","city1"],["2","name2","20","city2"],["3","name3","30","city3"],["4","name4","40","city4"],["5","name5","50","city5"],["6","name6","60","city6"],["7","name7","7","city7"],["8","name8","80","city8"],["9","name9","90","city9"],["10","name10","100","city10"],["11","name11","11","city11"],["12","name12","12","city12"],["13","name13","13","city13"],["14","name14","14","city14"],["15","name15","15","city15"],["16","name16","16","city16"],["17","name17","17","city17"],["18","name18","18","city18"],["19","name19","19","city19"],["20","name20","20","city20"],[""]]