Alternative to file_get_contents?

Question

$xml_file = file_get_contents(SITE_PATH . \'cms/data.php\');

The problem is that a server has URL file-access disabled. I cannot enable it, its a h

Answer 1

If the file is local as your comment about SITE_PATH suggest, it's pretty simple just execute the script and cache the result in a variable using the output control functions :

function print_xml_data_file()
{
    include(XML_DATA_FILE_DIRECTORY . 'cms/data.php');
}

function get_xml_data()
{
    ob_start();
    print_xml_data_file();
    $xml_file = ob_get_contents();
    ob_end_clean();
    return $xml_file;
}

If it's remote as lot of others said curl is the way to go. If it isn't present try socket_create or fsockopen. If nothing work... change your hosting provider.