Send variable to another server and get result with PHP

Question

OK I want to send a PHP variable to another server, this is my code, the php variable is an ip address.

 header("Location: http://www.domainname.com/bean/data.php?ip=$ip");

Basically the other server will get the ip address and return a variable called Description what i am unclear on is the best way to return the description variable back to the server.

code on data.php page

 $ip =$_GET['ip'];
 include("ipology.class.php");
 $ipology = new ipology( array($ip) );
 $out = $ipology->out();
 foreach( $out as $ip ) {
    if( is_array( $ip ) ) {
       $address = implode( ", ", (array) $ip['address'] );
       $descr = implode( ", ", (array) $ip['descr'] );
       echo "$descr";
    }
 }

depending on your situation, you need to perform a server or client side request to the other server. Neither of those happens with header(). — Nick Andriopoulos
– Nick Andriopoulos, Commented May 22, 2013 at 14:05
Like that you perform redirect. Check the answers, you must use curl or file_get_contents(). — V.Vachev
– V.Vachev, Commented May 22, 2013 at 14:10

smassey · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-22 14:10:26Z

3

Originating server could use (as Phil Cross mentions) file_get_contents or curl:

$response = file_get_contents('http://www.domainname.com/bean/data.php?ip='.$ip);
print_r( $response );

Remote server could use:

if ( isset( $_GET['ip'] ) && $_GET['ip'] ) {
  # do description lookup and 'echo' it out:
}

Using the header('location: xxx'); function, what you're essentially doing is forcing PHP on the originating server to respond with a 302 redirection header which will send the client to the remote server but there's no 'going back' from the remote server to the originating.

answered May 22, 2013 at 14:10

smassey

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1 Comment

user1691024 Over a year ago

Hi Thanks, I added the contents of the data.php page (added to the original post) to the # do somehting here section but it doesn't return anything?

Nick Andriopoulos · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-22 14:06:03Z

1

That header will simply redirect the user to that website. You want to use something like file_get_contents() if your server config allows for remote file access.

If not, look into cURL

You can grab the contents from the return of curl and process them that way.

edited May 22, 2013 at 14:06

Nick Andriopoulos

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answered May 22, 2013 at 14:04

Phil Cross

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Comments

user2050393 · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-22 14:16:05Z

1

You can use two methods:

If the only output of the target page is the description, then you can use

$description = file_get_contents("http://target.page?ip=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx");

If not, you can use curl like this:

// Create Post Information
$vars = array(
'ip'=>'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx',
'some_other_info'=>'xxx'
);


// urlencode the information if needed
$urlencoded = http_build_query($vars);

if( function_exists( "curl_init" )) { 
    $CR = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($CR, CURLOPT_URL, 'http://distantpage');
    curl_setopt($CR, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
    curl_setopt($CR, CURLOPT_FAILONERROR, true);
    curl_setopt($CR, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $urlencoded );
    curl_setopt($CR, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    curl_setopt($CR, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
    curl_setopt($CR, CURLOPT_FAILONERROR,true);


    $result = curl_exec( $CR );
    $error = curl_error ( $CR );


    // if there's error
    if( !empty( $error )) {
            echo $error;
            return;
    }

    curl_close( $CR );

}

parse_str($result, $output);
echo $output['description'];  // get description

answered May 22, 2013 at 14:16

user2050393

2 Comments

user1691024 Over a year ago

Hi Thanks, but i am not sure how i would add the contents of my data.php page in to this? and don't see how you get the echo output

user2050393 Over a year ago

your data.php need to output something like: description=description and stuff...&other_info=other info and other stuff.. and then you can echo $output['description'] or $output['other_info']

V.Vachev · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-22 14:07:05Z

0

Well if we assume that data.php returns only the description you can use

echo file_get_contents("http://www.domainname.com/bean/data.php?ip=".$ip);

It should do the job, but using CURL is the best option.

answered May 22, 2013 at 14:07

V.Vachev

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Comments

Henry Rivera · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-22 14:14:37Z

0

This snippet uses JSON to return the value, this will allow you to return multiple values in the future if your requirements expand.

I typically use XML in place of JSON, but it seems that it is going out of style :-P

Let me know if this works for you.

<?php

$output = file_get_contents("http://www.domainname.com/bean/data.php?ip=$ip");

// This is what would go in data.php
$output = '{ "ip": "127.0.0.1", "description": "localhost" }';

$parsed = json_decode($output);

echo "Description for $parsed->ip is $parsed->description\n";

// var_dump($parsed);

answered May 22, 2013 at 14:14

Henry Rivera

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