[php] How to get file_get_contents() to work with HTTPS?

I'm working on setting up credit card processing and needed to use a workaround for CURL. The following code worked fine when I was using the test server (which wasn't calling an SSL URL), but now when I am testing it on the working server with HTTPS, it's failing with the error message "failed to open stream".

function send($packet, $url) {
  $ctx = stream_context_create(
    array(
      'http'=>array(
        'header'=>"Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
        'method'=>'POST',
        'content'=>$packet
      )
    )
  );
  return file_get_contents($url, 0, $ctx);
}

I was stuck with non functional https on IIS. Solved with:

file_get_contents('https.. ) wouldn't load.

• download https://curl.haxx.se/docs/caextract.html
• install under ..phpN.N/extras/ssl

• edit php.ini with:

  curl.cainfo = "C:\Program Files\PHP\v7.3\extras\ssl\cacert.pem" openssl.cafile="C:\Program Files\PHP\v7.3\extras\ssl\cacert.pem"

finally!

Try the following.

function getSslPage($url) {
    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_REFERER, $url);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
    $result = curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close($ch);
    return $result;
}

Note: This disables SSL verification, meaning the security offered by HTTPS is lost. Only use this code for testing / local development, never on the internet or other public-facing networks. If this code works, it means the SSL certificate isn't trusted or can't be verified, which you should look into fixing as a separate issue.

This is probably due to your target server not having a valid SSL certificate.

To allow https wrapper:

• the php_openssl extension must exist and be enabled
• allow_url_fopen must be set to on

In the php.ini file you should add this lines if not exists:

extension=php_openssl.dll

allow_url_fopen = On

In my case, the issue was due to WAMP using a different php.ini for CLI than Apache, so your settings made through the WAMP menu don't apply to CLI. Just modify the CLI php.ini and it works.

Sometimes a server will choose not to respond based on what it sees or doesn't see in the http request headers (such as an appropriate user agent). If you can connect with a browser, grab the headers it sends and mimic them in your stream context.

I had the same error. Setting allow_url_include = On in php.ini fixed it for me.

$url= 'https://example.com';

$arrContextOptions=array(
      "ssl"=>array(
            "verify_peer"=>false,
            "verify_peer_name"=>false,
        ),
    );  

$response = file_get_contents($url, false, stream_context_create($arrContextOptions));

This will allow you to get the content from the url whether it is a HTTPS

HTTPS is supported starting from PHP 4.3.0, if you have compiled in support for OpenSSL. Also, make sure the target server has a valid certificate, the firewall allows outbound connections and allow_url_fopen in php.ini is set to true.

use the following code:

$homepage = file_get_contents("https://www.google.com",false,
                             stream_context_create([
                                'ssl'  => [
                                    'verify_peer'      => false,
                                    'verify_peer_name' => false,
                                ]
                            ])
            );
    
 echo $homepage;

TO CHECK IF AN URL IS UP OR NOT

The code in your question can be rewritten as to a working version:

function send($packet=NULL, $url) {
// Do whatever you wanted to do with $packet
// The below two lines of code will let you know if https url is up or not
$command = 'curl -k '.$url;
return exec($command, $output, $retValue);
}

Just add two lines in your php.ini file.

extension=php_openssl.dll

allow_url_include = On

its working for me.