Question

I’m using DOMDocument to retrieve several bits of text from a webpage and place them into an array. The same code works on another server, yet doesn’t on mine. I get Trying to get property of non-object for each iteration of the while loop and the array remains empty at the end.

$html = file_get_contents("http://sugarkettle.site44.com/catering.html");
$doc = new DOMDocument();
libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
$doc->loadHTML($html);
libxml_clear_errors();

$meatPrices = array();

function fillArrayFromDOM($array,$type) {
    global $doc;
    $i = 0;
    $label = 1;
    $array = array();
    while ($label <= 15):
      $array[$i] = $doc->getElementById($type.$label)->textContent;
      $i++;
      $label++;
    endwhile;
    return $array;
}

fillArrayFromDOM($meatPrices,"meat");
echo var_dump($meatPrices); 

Here’s a link to it working:
http://www.evintr.com/willtest.php

He’s running a GoDaddy server and I have a local WAMP (2.2) server. Any configuration options I can provide that might explain why this is happening? Or does the problem have nothing to do with my server config?

Any help much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Update 1 – 11/16/12

On my server, I’ve tested $meatPrices[1] = $doc->getElementById('meat1')->textContent; and it works. For whatever reason, inside the while loop the same expression (except with variables in the getElementById parameters) tosses an error: Trying to get property of non-object.

Update 2 – 11/17/12

My WAMP server is running PHP version 5.3.13.
My friend’s server is running PHP version 5.3.6.

Answer 1

Try with adding allow_url_fopen=on in your PHP configuration file (php.ini). Save it and restart Apache; it should work…

EDIT:
Check also if you have extension php_openssl.dll enabled (extension=php_openssl.dll in your php.ini file). Again, restart of Apache would be required.

EDIT:

It depends on PHP version you have but here are two potential solutions:

1. replace line fillArrayFromDOM($meatPrices,"meat"); with
   $meatPrices = fillArrayFromDOM($meatPrices,"meat"); You can also
   change your function to remove necessary $meatPrices parameter).

or

1. replace line function fillArrayFromDOM($array,$type) { with function fillArrayFromDOM(&$array,$type) { //note new character &; it will keep reference to $array variable so it could be changeable; you can also remove line: $array = array();

Both should work; I am in rush have no time to wait on your comment response. Let us know what you get…