UrlGet

Summary: A PmWiki extension to replace PmWiki's use of "file_get_contents" with "cURL"

Version: 2026-09-29

Prerequisites: PmWiki pmwiki-2.7.6; PHP 8.5; ExtensionHub

Status: Beta

Maintainer: simon

Licence: GPL3 ^#

File: urlget-2026-09-29.zip Δ

Categories: Extensions

Users: +1 (view / edit)

Discussion: UrlGet-Talk

Questions answered by this extension

I want to use the built in RecipeCheck or Blocklist recipes.

how do I do this if "allow_url_fopen" is disabled by my webhost?
how do I do this in preference to "file_get_contents()" used internally by PmWiki?
I want to write a recipe that uses "simplexml_load_file()"

Description

This extension provides a function UrlGet() which uses "cURl" to retrieve the contents of the URL.
The PmWiki variable $UrlGetFunction is set to UrlGet\UrlGet using the PmWiki function SDV() if it is not already set.

Returns the URL contents as a string, or FALSE, the same as "file_get_contents".
Returns error messages in $FmtV['$UrlGetMsg'].

Install as an extension

download the urlget-2026-09-29.zipΔ archive
copy the urlget-2026-09-29.zipΔ archive to the /extension/ directory as /urlget/
uncompress the urlget-2026-09-29.zipΔ archive (optional, but recommended)
see the Site Admin.Extension Hub to configure the extension

Usage

enable the extension in the Site Admin.Extension Hub
check that the built in recipe installation check and BlockList recipes work if used.

Configuration

There is no configuration.

Internationalisations

There are no internationalisations.

Details

OK (200) returns TRUE, all other 200 range status responses return FALSE
an empty response returns FALSE
does NOT follow HTTP redirects (301, 302, 307, 308), returns FALSE
all other responses return FALSE
this extension is not intended for use with user-supplied input

Change log / Release notes

2026-09-28 better handle connection timeout and slow speeds
2026-09-11 update for PHP 8.5.10, remove curl_close()
2026-04-16 add a test and documentation
2026-04-08 initial version based on internal production code modifying diag.php to enable RecipeCheck

Testing

It has been possible to carry out only limited testing. The extension is in production use on a Windows and a Linux system. A built in test directive exercises one successful read and one read failure.

if the extension does not work on Linux from the archive file uncompress it.

For extension developers

Test if the PHP runtime setting allow_url_fopen is enabled

// check if allow_url_fopen is enabled
$allowUrlFopen = ini_get('allow_url_fopen') === 1;
if (!$allowUrlFopen) {
    $retVal .= RECIPENAME . ': The PHP runtime setting "allow_url_fopen" is not enabled.' . BR;
}