How to get file_get_contents() to work with HTTPS?

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

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.


Try the following script to see if there is an https wrapper available for your php scripts.

$w = stream_get_wrappers();
echo 'openssl: ',  extension_loaded  ('openssl') ? 'yes':'no', "\n";
echo 'http wrapper: ', in_array('http', $w) ? 'yes':'no', "\n";
echo 'https wrapper: ', in_array('https', $w) ? 'yes':'no', "\n";
echo 'wrappers: ', var_export($w);

the output should be something like

openssl: yes
http wrapper: yes
https wrapper: yes
wrappers: array(11) {
  [...]
}

$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