{"id":1301,"date":"2009-08-16T20:30:29","date_gmt":"2009-08-16T18:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetozh.com\/blog\/?p=1301"},"modified":"2010-03-30T16:12:57","modified_gmt":"2010-03-30T14:12:57","slug":"how-to-make-http-requests-with-wordpress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetozh.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/how-to-make-http-requests-with-wordpress\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Make HTTP Requests with WordPress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Making HTTP requests in PHP is not difficult, and a variety of methods exists: using fopen()<\/tt>, using cURL extension, using file streams with fsockopen()<\/tt> and fwrite()<\/tt> for instance. The problem is: depending on server setup, this might or might not work on another server. The good new is: once again, WordPress has a no-brainer API that makes it dead easy and compatible with all environments.
\n<\/p>\n

Introducing PHP class WP_Http<\/h2>\n

WordPress, since version 2.7 and thanks to the extreme coding leetness of Jacob Santos<\/a>, has a nifty class that sits in your wp-includes<\/tt> directory, in file http.php<\/tt>: WP_Http<\/a><\/p>\n

WordPress 3.x update<\/strong>: you now need to explicitly include the class if you intend to use it, that is start by adding the following lines:<\/p>\n

\n\n\t\t
\n\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t< View plain text<\/span> ><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t
php<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t
  1. if<\/span>(<\/span> !<\/span>class_exists<\/span>(<\/span> 'WP_Http'<\/span> )<\/span> )<\/span><\/div><\/li>\n
  2.     include_once<\/span>(<\/span> ABSPATH .<\/span> WPINC.<\/span> '\/class-http.php'<\/span> )<\/span>;<\/span><\/div><\/li>\n<\/ol>\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

    The power and beauty of this class is that, depending on what's available on the server, it will pick up the best method to perform HTTP request. Don't bother checking for the presence of HTTP extension, fopen() behavior, existence of curl_init(), as this class will do all this for you.<\/p>\n

    Basically, all the code you need to type is, more or less:<\/p>\n

    \n\n\t\t
    \n\n\t\t
    \n\t\t\t\t\t\t< View plain text<\/span> ><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t
    php<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t\t
    \n\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t
    \n\t\t
    1. $request<\/span> =<\/span> new<\/span> WP_Http;<\/span><\/div><\/li>\n
    2. $result<\/span> =<\/span> $request<\/span>-><\/span>request<\/span>(<\/span> 'http:\/\/some.url.you-need.to-fetch'<\/span> )<\/span>;<\/span><\/div><\/li>\n<\/ol>\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

      Variable $result<\/tt> will be an array, containing the following items:<\/p>\n