Question

What’s the best way to get content from an external website via php?

Using php how do I go to webpage (ex: http://store.domain.com/1/) and scan the HTML coding for data that is found in between (which is the letter C and E). what php method do I use?

<span id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_phstats1_pname">C</span>
<span id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_phstats2_pname">E</span>

then save “C” (the found string) to $pname

$_session['pname1'] = $pname1;
$_session['pname2'] = $pname2;

Answer 1

The most efficient method is:

$content = file_get_contents('http://www.domain.com/whatever.html');

$pos = str_pos($content,'id="c');
$on=0;
while($pos!==false)
 {
 $content = substr($content,$pos+4);
 $pos = str_pos($content,'"');
 $list[$on] = substr($content,0,$pos);
 $on++;
 $pos = str_pos($content,'id="c');
 }

Then all yours values will be in the $list array, the count of which is $on.

You could also do it in one line with one of the preg functions, but I like the old-school method, it’s a nanosecond faster.