[wilson@cpuworks.com]

I want to execute a program on another server,
and access the results in my PHP program.
This seems like it should be simple, but I'm
experiencing brain lock.
This works, outside of PHP:
I enter this as my URL in the browser:
http://server.com/cgi-bin/qdir?fm=X&uid=myuid
and receive back a chunk of XML data.
I'd like to execute that EXACT same URL in my
PHP program, with the proper user id substituted
for "myuid", and get that chunk of data into a string
where I can parse it to my heart's content.
What I tried:
$output = exec('http://server.com/cgi-bin/qdir?fm=X&uid=myuid');
echo "<pre>$output</pre>";

or "system(---)" or backticks with the HTTP command, etc.
All return $output=(blank).
The fact that it's an HTTP command has me confused;
it's not quite the same as executing a command on the
local machine (exec('/cgi-bin/qdir[etc]'))....
What am I missing? I'm sure it's obvious and simple,
but I just can't picture it.

[BdSBB]

You could try fopen() function.

PHP Code:

$fh = fopen ('http://server.com/cgi-bin/qdir?fm=X&uid=myuid', 'r');

fpassthru($fh);

fclose($fh); 

[wilson@cpuworks.com]

Bad news: Oddly enough, I get an error on the fclose with this
approach: Warning: fclose(): 1 is not a valid File-Handle
resource....
Good news: the fpassthru() does work, sending the output
to the screen.

But... I want to put the results in a string, not
just pass them directly back. So I tried to use, instead
of the fpassthru($fh):
$output = readfile($fn);

But that also gives an error, which makes sense when I read
the manual (!!!), which says that for HTTP fopens,
"an HTTP 1.0 connection is opened to the specified server
and a file pointer is returned to the beginning of the text
of the response." Fine, but then what? This means
$fh = 1 or something, and how do I actually get the text?
The readfile($fh) doesn't work, which makes sense if the
$fh is a file pointer; I get an error on the readfile saying
that this is not a valid resource. Anybody got a short
example of getting this to work? Should be easy, but I'm
still baffled.

[wilson@cpuworks.com]

Never mind, I got it.
$fh = fopen("http://myserver.com/cgi-bin/qdir?a=b&uid=abc", "r");
$output = '';
while (! feof($fh)) {
$output .= fread($fh, 1048576);
}
fclose($fh);

// at this point, $output contains the output, as desired,
// ready for parsing, etc! Cool....