Question

I am trying to write a PHP script that retrieves an xml file from a webservice. I have gotten an equivalent working in C#, but my overall goal is to integrate my final script into WordPress.

The trick is that I need to add an authentication header token.

In Fiddler, the request looks something like this:

GET https://service.domain.com/sample/stuff/555/state/PA/page/1/size/10 HTTP/1.1

User-Agent: Fiddler

Authorization: 123456789-123456789abcdef

Host: service.mywebgrocer.com

The C# code that I have (working) looks like:

HttpWebRequest request =
    (HttpWebRequest)
    WebRequest.Create("https://service.domain.com/sample/stuff/555/state/PA/page/1/size/10");
  request.Method = "GET";
  request.Headers.Add("Authorization", "123456789-123456789abcdef");
  request.ContentType = "application/xml; charset=utf-8";

  HttpWebResponse httpWebResponse = (HttpWebResponse) request.GetResponse();


  Stream stream = httpWebResponse.GetResponseStream();
  StreamReader streamRead = new StreamReader(stream);
  String streamString = streamRead.ReadToEnd();
  XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
  doc.LoadXml(streamString);

  Console.WriteLine("Name of xml document: {0}", doc.Name);
  Console.WriteLine("outer xml: {0}\n", doc.OuterXml);

What is the best way to implement this in PHP?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The best way would be to use cURL, because you want the ability to pass headers. file_get_contents won’t allow that. Make sure you take a look at the curl_setopt function for all of the stuff you can do with cURL.

I think you’ll want the option CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER. which takes an array of HTTP header fields to set, in the format array('Content-type: text/plain', 'Content-length: 100').

CURLOPT_USERAGENT will allow you to pass a user agent string if you choose to do so like Fiddler does (name it something other than Fiddler).

When you run curl_exec it should return the XML from the site. From there you could use the XML Parser, SimpleXML, or whatever you want.