Last updated: Fri, 20 Nov 2009

stream_context_create

(PHP 4 >= 4.3.0, PHP 5)

stream_context_create — Create a streams context

Description

resource stream_context_create ([ array $options [, array $params ]] )

Creates and returns a stream context with any options supplied in options preset.

Parameters

options

Must be an associative array of associative arrays in the format $arr['wrapper']['option'] = $value.

Default to an empty array.

params

Must be an associative array in the format $arr['parameter'] = $value. Refer to context parameters for a listing of standard stream parameters.

Return Values

A stream context resource.

Changelog

Version	Description
5.3.0	Added the optional `params` argument.

Examples

Example #1 Using stream_context_create()


<?php
$opts = array(
  'http'=>array(
    'method'=>"GET",
    'header'=>"Accept-language: en\r\n" .
              "Cookie: foo=bar\r\n"
  )
);

$context = stream_context_create($opts);

/* Sends an http request to www.example.com
   with additional headers shown above */
$fp = fopen('http://www.example.com', 'r', false, $context);
fpassthru($fp);
fclose($fp);
?>


Nice example from http://fabien.potencier.org/article/20/tweeting-from-php :





Twitter is everywhere nowadays. Odds are eventually you will want to tweet from PHP. No need to use one of the numerous PHP Twitter libraries, as tweeting is as simple as using the PHP built-in file_get_contents() function:





<?php


function tweet($message, $username, $password)


{


  $context = stream_context_create(array(


    'http' => array(


      'method'  => 'POST',


      'header'  => sprintf("Authorization: Basic %s\r\n", base64_encode($username.':'.$password)).


                   "Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n",


      'content' => http_build_query(array('status' => $message)),


      'timeout' => 5,


    ),


  ));


  $ret = file_get_contents('http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml', false, $context);


 


  return false !== $ret;


}


?>





Pretty easy, no? Using the tweet() function is of course a piece of cake:





<?php


tweet('From PHP, yeah...', 'fabpot', 'Pa$$');


?>





As an added bonus, the function returns true if everything went fine, or false otherwise.

Brian Gottier
16-May-2009 02:13


In some cases, set a header option as an array, and not a string, depending on server configuration.





<?php


$opts = array(


  'http'=> array(


    'method'=>   "GET",


    'header'=>    array( "Cookie: foo="bar"l ),


    'user_agent'=>    $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']


  )


);


?>

dresel at gmx dot at
21-Apr-2009 04:23


I use this script to send normal data and images (you may have to change Content-Type to send other data), works fine for me :)





<?php


function do_post_request($url, $postdata, $files = null)


{ 


    $data = "";


    $boundary = "---------------------".substr(md5(rand(0,32000)), 0, 10);


       


    //Collect Postdata


    foreach($postdata as $key => $val)


    {


        $data .= "--$boundary\n";


        $data .= "Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"".$key."\"\n\n".$val."\n";


    }


     


    $data .= "--$boundary\n";


    


    //Collect Filedata


    foreach($files as $key => $file)


    {


        $fileContents = file_get_contents($file['tmp_name']);


        


        $data .= "Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"{$key}\"; filename=\"{$file['name']}\"\n";


        $data .= "Content-Type: image/jpeg\n";


        $data .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary\n\n";


        $data .= $fileContents."\n";


        $data .= "--$boundary--\n";


    }


  


    $params = array('http' => array(


           'method' => 'POST',


           'header' => 'Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary='.$boundary,


           'content' => $data


        ));





   $ctx = stream_context_create($params);


   $fp = fopen($url, 'rb', false, $ctx);


   


   if (!$fp) {


      throw new Exception("Problem with $url, $php_errormsg");


   }


 


   $response = @stream_get_contents($fp);


   if ($response === false) {


      throw new Exception("Problem reading data from $url, $php_errormsg");


   }


   return $response;


}





//set data (in this example from post)





//sample data


$postdata = array(


    'name' => $_POST['name'],


    'age' => $_POST['age'],


    'sex' => $_POST['sex']


);





//sample image


$files['image'] = $_FILES['image'];





do_post_request("http://example.com", $postdata, $files);


?>

rlintern at gmail dot com
20-Feb-2009 11:56


I found the following code worked for me for POSTing some binary data to a remote server. I am putting it here since I could not find a quick solution to this by 'googling' or looking through this documentation. 



Disclaimer:  I have no idea if this a 'good' solution, since I'm new to PHP, but it may just suit your needs as it did mine.  I am assuming bad things will happen with very large files since the entire file is read into $fileContents. 



I am using PHP 5.2.8.



   $fileHandle = fopen("someImage.jpg", "rb");

   $fileContents = stream_get_contents($fileHandle);

   fclose($fileHandle);



   $params = array(

      'http' => array

      (

          'method' => 'POST',

          'header'=>"Content-Type: multipart/form-data\r\n",

          'content' => $fileContents

      )

   );

   $url = "http://somesite.somecompany.com?someParam=someValue";

   $ctx = stream_context_create($params);

   $fp = fopen($url, 'rb', false, $ctx);



   $response = stream_get_contents($fp);

davep at atomicdroplet dot com
17-May-2007 06:02


In addition to the context options mentioned above (appendix N), lower down context options for sockets can be found in appendix P - http://www.php.net/manual/en/transports.php

jrubenstein at gmail dot com
27-Apr-2007 11:36


Something to keep in mind when creating SSL streams (using https://):



<?php

$context = context_create_stream($context_options)

$fp = fopen('https://url', 'r', false, $context);

?>



One would think - the proper way to create a stream options array, would be as follows: 



<?php

$context_options = array (

        'https' => array (

            'method' => 'POST',

            'header'=> "Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n"

                . "Content-Length: " . strlen($data) . "\r\n",

            'content' => $data

            )

        );

?>



THAT IS THE WRONG WAY!!!

Take notice to the 3rd line: 'https' => array (



The CORRECT way, is as follows:



<?php

$context_options = array (

        'http' => array (

            'method' => 'POST',

            'header'=> "Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n"

                . "Content-Length: " . strlen($data) . "\r\n",

            'content' => $data

            )

        );

?>



Notice, the NEW 3rd line: 'http' => array (



Now - keep this in mind - I spent several hours trying to trouble shoot my issue, when I finally stumbled upon this non-documented issue.



The complete code to post to a secure page is as follows:



<?php

$data = array ('foo' => 'bar', 'bar' => 'baz');

$data = http_build_query($data);



$context_options = array (

        'http' => array (

            'method' => 'POST',

            'header'=> "Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n"

                . "Content-Length: " . strlen($data) . "\r\n",

            'content' => $data

            )

        );



$context = context_create_stream($context_options)

$fp = fopen('https://url', 'r', false, $context);

?>

chris dot vigelius at gmx dot net
11-Apr-2007 07:34


It seems that the authorization example given below by"php at charlesconsulting dot com" does NOT work with PHP 5.2.1, since the 'header' option will be simply ignored if it is not an array (but a string).



The following works:

$url = 'http://protectedstuff.com';

$auth = base64_encode('user:password');

$header = array("Authorization: Basic $auth");

$opts = array( 'http' => array ('method'=>'GET',

                                           'header'=>$header));

$ctx = stream_context_create($opts);

file_get_contents($url,false,$ctx);



See also http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=41051

php at charlesconsulting dot com
13-Jan-2007 09:14


Here's an example of retrieving a page which requests a username and password using the basic authorization scheme.  This calls the w3.org web page validator for a password protected page.

//$fileurl contains page to validate

$validateurl="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=$fileurl";



$cred = sprintf('Authorization: Basic %s',

    base64_encode('username:password') );

$opts = array(

    'http'=>array(

    'method'=>'GET',

    'header'=>$cred) 

);

$ctx = stream_context_create($opts);



$validate=file_get_contents($validateurl,false,$ctx);

sp0n9e at gmail dot com
29-Dec-2006 12:18


Here's a very simple way to do posts easily without need of cURL or writing an http request by hand using the tcp:// wrapper.  I like using contexts just because of their ubiquity and the lack of an optional library such as cURL (though one of the more popular libraries).



<?php



$options = array(

  'http'=>array(

    'method'=>"POST",

    'header'=>

      "Accept-language: en\r\n".

      "Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n",

    'content'=>http_build_query(array('foo'=>'bar'))

));



$context = stream_context_create($options);



fopen('http://www.example.com/',false,$context);



?>

dev at zayso dot org
05-Mar-2006 07:31


Example of a stream for reading a string passed 

via a context object.

<?php

/* ----------------------------------------

 * Designed to read from a string

 */

class sfStreamStringRead

{

    const PROTOCOL = 'stringread'; /* Underscore not allowed */

        

    protected $dataPos  = NULL;

    protected $dataBuf  = NULL;

    protected $dataLen  = NULL;

    

    function stream_open($path, $mode, $options, &$opened_path)

    {

        /* Verify context has data */ 

        $contextOptions = stream_context_get_options($this->context);

        if (!isset($contextOptions[self::PROTOCOL]['data'])) {

            return FALSE;

        }

        $this->dataBuf = $contextOptions[self::PROTOCOL]['data'];

        $this->dataLen = strlen($this->dataBuf);

        $this->dataPos = 0;

        return TRUE;

    }

    function stream_read($count){ 

        $ret = substr($this->dataBuf, $this->dataPos, $count); 

        $this->dataPos += strlen($ret); 

        return $ret; 

    }

    function stream_eof(){ 

        return $this->dataPos >= $this->dataLen; 

    } 

    function stream_tell(){ 

        return $this->dataPos; 

    }

    /* ------------------------------------------

     * A few helper functions

     */ 

    static function genURL()

    {

        return self::PROTOCOL . '://';

    }

    static function genContext($dataBuf)

    {

        return stream_context_create(array(

            self::PROTOCOL => array(

                'data' => $dataBuf,

            ),

        ));

    }

    static function open($dataBuf)

    {

        return fopen(self::genURL(),'r',FALSE,self::genContext($dataBuf)); 

    }  

}

stream_wrapper_register(

    sfStreamStringRead::PROTOCOL,

   'sfStreamStringRead'

);



$sp = sfStreamStringRead::open("Some String Data\n");

echo fgets($sp);

fclose($sp);        



?>

net_navard at yahoo dot com
10-Dec-2005 12:38


Hi,you can create an array of parameters(what it's called a stream context),which can be transmitted each time you read or write a stream through a socket.In the below example:



$opts =array('http'=>arra('method'=>"GET",

'header'=>"Accept-language:en\r\n"."Cookie: foo=bar\r\n");



What you're actually doing is create a set of parameters(the protocol to be used,the request method,additional http headers and a cookie) which will be used each time you open a socket connection to request www.example.com.This saves a lot of time if you want to use these parameters (called a stream context) whenever you include them when making a request to www.example.com,instead of having to specify them over and over again.

Using the previous example,say you want to create a stream context,which sends a "Content-Type" http header and utilize it when making a request to www.example.com.Take a look:



$opts = array('http'=>array('method'=>"GET",

'header'=>"Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8");



$context = stream_context_create($opts);

$fp = fopen('http://www.example.com','r',false,$context);

fpassthru($fp);

fclose($fp);



Now,when you make a request to www.example.com,the above http header will be included within the socket and transmitted to the server.Best of luck for you friends,Hossein

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