Solved: Problem with CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION

Freaking hell old hostings using safe_mode. HATE YOU ALL!! 😛

So the problem is to make curl return data using CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, I will get this error in some disgusting hostings:

curl_setopt(): CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION cannot be activated when safe_mode is enabled or an open_basedir is set

Sounds terrible and it is….safe_mode is deprecated but still in use at many places.

I’ve found a solution at php.net but I did a bit of refactor.

With this function you will be able to get any content from a URL just like:

echo curl_get_contents('https://bitly.com/oc_212');

And will follow all the redirects, like short url’s etc..

Code

/**
     * gets the html content from a URL
     * @param  string $url 
     * @return string      
     */
    function curl_get_contents($url)
    {
        $c = curl_init();
        curl_setopt($c, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
        curl_setopt($c, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
        curl_setopt($c, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT,30); 
        // curl_setopt($c, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, TRUE);
        // $contents = curl_exec($c);
        $contents = curl_exec_follow($c);

        curl_close($c);
        return ($contents)? $contents : FALSE;
        
    }

    /**
     * [curl_exec_follow description] http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.curl-setopt.php#102121
     * @param  curl  $ch          handler
     * @param  integer $maxredirect hoe many redirects we allow
     * @return contents
     */
    function curl_exec_follow($ch, $maxredirect = 5) 
    { 
        //using normal curl redirect
        if (ini_get('open_basedir') == '' AND ini_get('safe_mode' == 'Off')) 
        { 
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, $maxredirect > 0); 
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS, $maxredirect); 
        } 
        //using safemode...WTF!
        else 
        { 
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, FALSE); 
            if ($maxredirect > 0) 
            { 
                $newurl = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_EFFECTIVE_URL); 

                $rch = curl_copy_handle($ch); 
                curl_setopt($rch, CURLOPT_HEADER, TRUE); 
                curl_setopt($rch, CURLOPT_NOBODY, TRUE); 
                curl_setopt($rch, CURLOPT_FORBID_REUSE, FALSE); 
                curl_setopt($rch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE); 

                do 
                { 
                    curl_setopt($rch, CURLOPT_URL, $newurl); 
                    $header = curl_exec($rch); 
                    if (curl_errno($rch))
                        $code = 0; 
                    else 
                    { 
                        $code = curl_getinfo($rch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE); 
                        if ($code == 301 OR $code == 302) 
                        { 
                            preg_match('/Location:(.*?)\n/', $header, $matches); 
                            $newurl = trim(array_pop($matches)); 
                        }
                        else 
                            $code = 0; 
                    } 
                } 
                while ($code AND --$maxredirect); 

                curl_close($rch); 

                if (!$maxredirect) 
                { 
                    if ($maxredirect === NULL) 
                        trigger_error('Too many redirects. When following redirects, libcurl hit the maximum amount.', E_USER_WARNING); 
                    else  
                        $maxredirect = 0; 

                    return FALSE; 
                } 

                curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $newurl); 
            } 
        } 

        return curl_exec($ch); 
    }