File_Get_Contents Warnings

[Bob Crabb]

I need some help. There is probably an easy solution for this, but I'm just not seeing it right now.

 

I am doing a file_get_contents of a url to fill in an array variable. The program is working great, but in planning for a situation where there an error, like the url isn't available, or some other problem at the site where I am getting the information, I don't want errors to display on the page where I am using the array information. I have put in an if statement, checking for an empty array or a false return from the file_get_contents function. That will cause the script to go happily along doing something else, but when I test (by inserting an invalid url) the script works as expected, but I get warnings on the page. How can I capture the error and stop the warnings from displaying for this function?

[Bob Crabb]

Nevermind ... I found a solution.

[TCH-Bruce]

Glad you found a solution!

[OJB]

I'm assuming your solution was error suppression using @ i.e. @file_get_contents()?

[TCH-Dick]

Suppressing with @ does work, but I prefer to use trigger_error() to output custom errors without exposing too much.

[Bob Crabb]

Yes, I used @. Seeing that it suppresses all errors, I don't really like using it, but in this case I think that it will be ok.

 

What I am doing is using a geolocation api to get location information from the IP address of anyone visiting the site. Then I am using that information to customize some content. If the IP check fails, then the user sees the default content. I'm setting a $_SESSION parameter when the check is done so the function will only be called once per user visit. If the geolocation site is down, I didn't want error messages to appear on the page.