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phpweb-scrapingfile-get-contents

file_get_contents in PHP not working

For a class project, we are supposed to pull data from another website. I picked pulling games similar to a given game from GiantBomb.com (credits are given to them on my script)

// $gameLink = "/call-of-duty-black-ops/61-26423/";
$html = file_get_contents("http://www.giantbomb.com" . urlencode($gameLink) . "games_similar/");
echo $html;

This returns nothing.

However, if $gameLink is manually typed:

$html = file_get_contents("http://www.giantbomb.com/call-of-duty-black-ops/61-26423/games_similar/");
echo $html;

Now, it will properly return a result. What's wrong with my code? I tried performing urlencode() on the entire link and not just the $gameLink variable but it still fails. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Solution

  • You are only required to urlencode links embedded in html. Don't urlencode links passed to file_get_contents().