In this new post to the Ask About PHP blog they take a look at one of the basics of using PHP - fetching the data from a remote URL via the cURL extension.

In PHP, there are actually four ways to access a remote URL - fopen() fsockopen(), cURL extensions and HTTP_Request class from the PEAR library. Now, choosing one way over another really depends on your needs for simplicity, control, and portability. Generally, I prefer using cURL simply because it's easy to understand and it's really powerful.

You'll need to have cURL enabled to be able to follow along. The examples show how to fetch a single remote page, a protected remote page, sending a POST request and fetching the URL with custom headers.

On the PHPClasses.org blog Manuel Lemos has a recent post looking at a method for sending emails using a remote SMTP server (like Google or Yahoo's) via this package.

In most hosting environments, the PHP mail() function is sufficient to send e-mail messages without problems. However, there are situations on which using the mail function is inconvenient and may prevent that your messages reach the destination. [...] Therefore, you may need to find an alternative way for sending your e-mail messages from PHP.

The package lets you define a username/password, server, whether to use a SSL connection or not, and if the connection needs to use the TLS protocol.

Nessa has started off a series looking at writing your own API with part one posted recently focusing on the client-side first, writing an interface for their API.

Though in real applications you wouldn't need an API, all you'd need is a PHP script that accepts GET or POST input to perform some kind of action. In this example, we'll have a script that automatically adds DNS zones to a nameserver that runs cPanel as well. Most APIs do the same thing - you have a script, then that script accepts post/get variables, then does something.

Her example creates the request - a server, path, IP and hash key - and sends it off to the remote system. The result is pulled back in and parsed through a SimpleXML object. The credentials allow for access lists and a bit of security on the backend.

Chuck Burgess has posted a discovery he made while working with Eclipse PDT and a command line script that he needed to debug:

This week, I found a need to do this same kind of remote debugging, but for a command-line PHP script. This seems to be something that Eclipse is not already designed to do, as there is no "perpetual listener" available for its debug client. Instructions for remote CLI debugging are available, which showed me that environment variables might be the missing link to getting it working with Eclipse. It turned out to be one of two missing links. The other link was tricking Eclipse into keeping a debug session open (and therefore "listening").

He found that by loading up the PHP file in a shell script with the XDEBUG_CONFIG and XDEBUG_SESSION variables defined, it allows the Eclipse listener to connect and work through the file like a normal web page request.

On PHPBuilder.com Richard Bates has continued his series introducing the Zend_Amf component of the Zend Framework and how to get a sample project setup that uses it.

Last week we discussed the new Zend Framework extension and gave you a look inside its functionality. This week we take off where we ended last week, and delve into remote objects and Zend_Amf!

The tutorial walks you through the setup of a new project, the PHP code behind it and how to get the two talking back and forth through a RemoteObject. Screenshots and complete code are included.

On DevShed today, there's a new tutorial on showing how to create a simple application to use one of the simpler protocols - FTP.

PHP has many functions that help us to implement Internet and/or networking protocols. In this article, we will look at how to implement some of those protocols using PHP.

They introduce the FTP functions for PHP (a basic list, PHP manual style) and include the code - the CSS to make it easier to use and the PHP code to make the FTP connection and grab the remote file listing. A screenshot is included to give you an idea of the end result.

Ed Finkler, a long-time user of SFTPDrive on his Windows machine, has noticed something a bit odd lately when using the new Zend Studio (Eclipse):

For some reason, ZSfE just doesn't show me my 'śk:'ť drive (the SFTP mount) when browsing for a project directory. This throws a real wrench in my usual workflow '" ZS 5.5 had built-in SFTP support, and I could also use the local mount if I wanted.

Finding nothing in the traditional places, he's made this blog post hoping someone might have the answer. Turns out that the fix (as provided by Josh Johnston) is to create a new project around a new Remote Folder.

Demian Turner has posted about the latest version of the Seagull framework (0.6.3) and an update to correct a remote file disclosure issue (up to version 0.6.4).

Well it took a bit of time but after quite a few months a new release of Seagull is finally out, 0.6.3 (0.6.4). Things have been keeping pretty busy with the startup I'm working on, but it's been a great opportunity to refine some features of the framework and optimize the performance. The early indications are good, after less than 10 weeks of going live Kindo users are creating up to 20k profiles/day and the server load is staying comfortably below 0.5.

The update is a different download that helps correct an issue with the framework allowing user-inputted values from the GET string. Be sure and update your version to keep this security issue under wraps.

Chris Hartjes has a quick post (but complete with code) about moving files around a bit differently than the norm - it's his method for using a HTTP-PUT to push a file out.

A work project is getting close to 0.1 status. Pretty underwhelming, I know. One of the last 'milestones' for 0.1 is taking these wonderful XML documents that my web app creates and sends them to an internal web service. This web service will accept documents via an HTTP PUT [...] so I dug around a bit on the web and put together some code.

The code is a generic "publish" method that opens a stream to the remote server and, in a binary format, pushes the contents of a local file and parses out the response.

The Developer Tutorials site has posted a new article covering the creation of a small application that can help you scrape content from a remote page and pull it into your script.

In this tutorial you will learn how to build a PHP script that scrapes links from any web page.

You'll learn to use cURL, the DOM functions, XPath and a bit of MySQL to get the job done. It's nice to see that they also include a section looking at one of the more touchy aspects of web page scraping - "is it legal?"