Failed Connection to RSS Feed using SimpleXML

**ULTiMATE** · Dec 2, 2008 04:20

I am running some code which calls simplexml_load_file() to parse a XML file and output its details. The function works perfectly on my XAMPP setup, but on my work server I get this error:

Warning: simplexml_load_file(http://www.live.com/news/results.asp...BNB&format=rss) [function.simplexml-load-file]: failed to open stream: Connection refused in rss.php on line 5

Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "http://www.live.com/news/results.aspx?q=New+York&go=&form=QBNB&format=rss" in rss.php on line 5

Notice: Trying to get property of non-object in rss.php on line 9

Notice: Trying to get property of non-object in rss.php on line 9

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in rss.php on line 9

Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be? I've uploaded a phpinfo() file and it seems that SimpleXML is loaded on there.

Thank you!

**Dharma** · Dec 2, 2008 04:39

The "Connection refused" error suggests that there is something going wrong on the other end - you said you can connect manually so that's obviously not it. Are you perhaps connecting on the wrong port?

**ULTiMATE** · Dec 2, 2008 04:42

Originally Posted by Dharma

The "Connection refused" error suggests that there is something going wrong on the other end - you said you can connect manually so that's obviously not it. Are you perhaps connecting on the wrong port?

I'm not sure. The server is internal so I cannot provide a link as reference. I'm just viewing it as a normal URL in both and receiving an error on the work server.

**Dharma** · Dec 2, 2008 04:46

I'm wondering if a proxy or firewall in your work setup is blocking attempts - that might cause a connection refused error. Otherwise it's the host you're trying to connect to who, for some reason, chooses to refuse your incoming request for data.

Best of luck!

**ULTiMATE** · Dec 2, 2008 04:49

Originally Posted by Dharma

I'm wondering if a proxy or firewall in your work setup is blocking attempts - that might cause a connection refused error. Otherwise it's the host you're trying to connect to who, for some reason, chooses to refuse your incoming request for data.

Best of luck!

I really hope not, as I need to connect to this XML file or the website doesn't receive the news updates we need through simplexml_load_file().

I doubt it's the host I'm connecting to through simplexml_load_file(), mainly because I've tried RSS feeds outside on popular sites like Yahoo and Google. Do you know of any way to get around a blocking like this? I'm trying to connect to an outside RSS feed to output the contents on a HTML page.

**AnthonySterling** · Dec 2, 2008 04:53

It wouldn't surprise me that the remote server is blocking access.

Try using file_get_contents to obtain the data whilst passing a stream context containing a user-agent header...

PHP Code:


<?php
$sData = file_get_contents(
    'http://www.live.com/news/results.aspx?q=New+York&go=&form=QBNB&format=rss',
    false,
    stream_context_create(
        array(
            'http'=>array(
                'user_agent'=>'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.4) Gecko/2008102920 Firefox/3.0.4'
            )
        )
    )
);
$oXML = simplexml_load_string($sData);
?>

**ULTiMATE** · Dec 2, 2008 04:56

Originally Posted by SilverBulletUK

It wouldn't surprise me that the remote server is blocking access.

Try using file_get_contents to obtain the data whilst passing a stream context containing a user-agent header...

PHP Code:


<?php

$sData = file_get_contents(

    'http://www.live.com/news/results.aspx?q=New+York&go=&form=QBNB&format=rss',

    false,

    stream_context_create(

        array(

            'http'=>array(

                'user_agent'=>'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.4) Gecko/2008102920 Firefox/3.0.4'

            )

        )

    )

);

$oXML = simplexml_load_string($sData);

?>

Gave it a try, but still receiving the same problem. As far as I can tell the server admins aren't going to want to provide me access willingly.

**AnthonySterling** · Dec 2, 2008 05:04

Okies, what do you getting when try cURL to obtain the data?

PHP Code:


<?php
$rcUrlHandle = curl_init('http://www.live.com/news/results.aspx?q=New+York&go=&form=QBNB&format=rss');
curl_setopt($rcUrlHandle,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,true);
$sData = curl_exec($rcUrlHandle);
if(curl_errno($rcUrlHandle))
{
    print_r(curl_getinfo($rcUrlHandle));
    curl_close($rcUrlHandle);
}
else
{
    print_r($sData);
    curl_close($rcUrlHandle);
}
?>

**ULTiMATE** · Dec 2, 2008 05:08

Array ( [url] => http://www.live.com/news/results.aspx?q=New+York&go=&form=QBNB&format=rss [http_code] => 0 [header_size] => 0 [request_size] => 0 [filetime] => -1 [ssl_verify_result] => 0 [redirect_count] => 0 [total_time] => 0 [namelookup_time] => 0.01106 [connect_time] => 0 [pretransfer_time] => 0 [size_upload] => 0 [size_download] => 0 [speed_download] => 0 [speed_upload] => 0 [download_content_length] => 0 [upload_content_length] => 0 [starttransfer_time] => 0 [redirect_time] => 0 )

I'm guessing this means that the contents are being blocked.

**AnthonySterling** · Dec 2, 2008 05:10

it looks suspiciously like you are behind a firewall or ISA, could this be true?

**ULTiMATE** · Dec 2, 2008 05:12

Originally Posted by SilverBulletUK

it looks suspiciously like you are behind a firewall or ISA, could this be true?

Well, my URL is http://isa.url.com, so I guess the ISA part is true, although I am able to access using www, although in doing this all PHP error messages are removed.

**AnthonySterling** · Dec 2, 2008 05:28

::removed::

**AnthonySterling** · Dec 2, 2008 05:42

Actually, scrap that..it doesn't work.

I've jumped on one of our domain clients who uses a proxy and it returns the same response, so, I would guess it's your local proxy causing you the issues and not the remote site.

**AnthonySterling** · Dec 2, 2008 06:03

I've tested this and it should work to authorise the request for a local proxy:-

PHP Code:


<?php

/**
 * Obtains remote data via a local proxy
 * requiring authorisation.
 *
 * @param    String    $sURL                The remote target
 * @param    String    $sProxyAddress        The FQDN or IP address of your local proxy
 * @param    Integer    $iProxyPort            The proxy servers port
 * @param    String    $sProxyUsername        Your domain username prefixed by your local domain name eg. DOMAIN\USERNAME
 * @param    String    $sProxyPassword        Your domain password
 * @return    String    
 */
function file_get_contents_via_proxy( $sURL, $sProxyAddress, $iProxyPort, $sProxyUsername, $sProxyPassword )
{
    $rcURLhandle = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($rcURLhandle, CURLOPT_URL, $sURL);
    curl_setopt($rcURLhandle, CURLOPT_PROXYAUTH, CURLAUTH_NTLM);
    curl_setopt($rcURLhandle, CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE, CURLPROXY_HTTP);
    curl_setopt($rcURLhandle, CURLOPT_PROXY, sprintf('%s:%s',$sProxyAddress,$iProxyPort));
    curl_setopt($rcURLhandle, CURLOPT_PROXYUSERPWD, sprintf('%s:%s',$sProxyUsername,$sProxyPassword));
    curl_setopt($rcURLhandle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
    $sData = curl_exec($rcURLhandle);
    return ( curl_errno($rcURLhandle) > 0 ) ? false : $sData ;
}

echo file_get_contents_via_proxy('http://www.google.co.uk/', '10.0.0.1', 8080, 'DOMAIN\USERNAME', 'PASSWORD');

?>

**ULTiMATE** · Dec 2, 2008 13:47

Originally Posted by SilverBulletUK

I've tested this and it should work to authorise the request for a local proxy:-

PHP Code:


<?php

/**
 * Obtains remote data via a local proxy
 * requiring authorisation.
 *
 * @param    String    $sURL                The remote target
 * @param    String    $sProxyAddress        The FQDN or IP address of your local proxy
 * @param    Integer    $iProxyPort            The proxy servers port
 * @param    String    $sProxyUsername        Your domain username prefixed by your local domain name eg. DOMAIN\USERNAME
 * @param    String    $sProxyPassword        Your domain password
 * @return    String    
 */
function file_get_contents_via_proxy( $sURL, $sProxyAddress, $iProxyPort, $sProxyUsername, $sProxyPassword )
{
    $rcURLhandle = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($rcURLhandle, CURLOPT_URL, $sURL);
    curl_setopt($rcURLhandle, CURLOPT_PROXYAUTH, CURLAUTH_NTLM);
    curl_setopt($rcURLhandle, CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE, CURLPROXY_HTTP);
    curl_setopt($rcURLhandle, CURLOPT_PROXY, sprintf('%s:%s',$sProxyAddress,$iProxyPort));
    curl_setopt($rcURLhandle, CURLOPT_PROXYUSERPWD, sprintf('%s:%s',$sProxyUsername,$sProxyPassword));
    curl_setopt($rcURLhandle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
    $sData = curl_exec($rcURLhandle);
    return ( curl_errno($rcURLhandle) > 0 ) ? false : $sData ;
}

echo file_get_contents_via_proxy('http://www.google.co.uk/', '10.0.0.1', 8080, 'DOMAIN\USERNAME', 'PASSWORD');

?>

Sorry for the lack of reply. Some idiot set off the fire alarm and by the time we got back in it was time to head home. I did try running the code but for some reason it wouldn't run, although I'm not sure whether that's the code's fault or the server itself...

I'll give it a fresh run tomorrow. Thanks for all the help so far!

**ULTiMATE** · Dec 4, 2008 08:17

Sorry for the late reply. It's been a hectic couple of days.

The code works! I spoke to one of the server admins and he told me to connect through their proxy, so after adding that in and connecting I am now able to run my code.

Thanks for all the help!

**AnthonySterling** · Dec 4, 2008 08:27

That's great news, happy, er, XML'ing?

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