How do I get using php?

Question

I know that this is a simple question for PHP guys but I don't know the language and just need to do a simple "get" from another web page when my page is hit. i.e. signal the other page that this page has been hit.

EDIT: curl is not available to me.

Answer 1

If curl wrappers are on (they are per default), you can use:

file_get_contents('http://www.example.org');

Note that this happens synchronous, so before the request has completed, your page won't either. It would be better to log access to a logfile (or database) and export the data occasionally. Alternatively, you could do the request after your page has completed, and output has been sent to the client.

Answer 2

Beware file_get_contents() and fopen():

If PHP has decided that filename specifies a registered protocol, and that protocol is registered as a network URL, PHP will check to make sure that allow_url_fopen is enabled. If it is switched off, PHP will emit a warning and the fopen call will fail.