UrlGet

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

Version: 2026-04-16

Prerequisites: PmWiki pmwiki-2.6.0; PHP 8.3; ExtensionHub

Status: Beta

Maintainer: simon

Licence: GPL3 ^#

File: urlget-2026-04-16.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 global variable $UrlGetFunction is set to UrlGet using the PmWiki function SDV if it is not already set.

The internal PmWiki variable "$UrlGetFunction" is set to "UrlGet\UrlGet".
UrlGet is a function that uses "cURl" to retrieve the contents of a URL.
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-2026-04-16.zipΔ archive
copy the urlget-2026-04-16.zipΔ archive to the /extension/ directory as /urlget/
uncompress the urlget-2026-04-16.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

Change log / Release notes

2026-04-16: add a test and documentation
2026-04-08: Initial version based on internal code modding 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 exercises one successful read and one read failure.

if the extension does not work on Linux from the archive file uncompress it. This is being investigated.

For extension developers

Test if allow_url_fopen is enabled

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

To enable use of this extension

SDV($UrlGetFunction, 'file_get_contents'); # defaults to built in function
$fileContents= @$UrlGetFunction($url);
if ($fileContents === FALSE) {
    $errMsg = $FmtV['$UrlGetMsg'] ?? '';
    $retVal .= RECIPENAME . ': unable to retrieve "' . $url . '" ' . $errMsg . BR;
}