It’s strange how many different ways there are to do the same thing in PHP. For example,if you want to retrieve a URL, it can be as easy as calling file_get_contents($url), or you can use the PECL libraries, or you can go dig up an open source project such as this one.

I was messing around one night and figured it would be possible to just run an http request over a socket. As it turns out it’s not so difficult, there is tons of information out there on how to do it and it wasn’t long before I had a method figured out.

The advantage of this is that it is lightweight and gives you some control over the headers (etc) that you want to send/receive. This has only been tested on text-only requests.

function get_http_content ($url, $timeout = 3, $headers = array()) {
	// initialise return variable
	$stcReturn = array("headers"=>array(), "content"=>"");

	// get server name, port, path from URL
	$strRegex = "/^(http[s]?)\:\/\/([^\:\/]+)[\:]?([0-9]*)(.*)$/";
	$strServer = preg_replace($strRegex,"$2",$url);
	$strPath = preg_replace($strRegex,"$4",$url);
	$numPort = preg_replace($strRegex,"$3",$url);
	if ($numPort == "") {
		if (preg_replace($strRegex,"$1",$url) == "https") {
			$stcReturn["headers"]["Status-Code"] = "0";
			$stcReturn["headers"]["Status"] = "HTTPS is not supported";
			$stcReturn["content"] = "Error: HTTPS is not supported";
		} else {
			$numPort = 80;
		}
	}

	// connect to server, run request
	$objSocket = fsockopen($strServer, $numPort, $numError, $strError, $timeout);
	if (!$objSocket) {
		// connection not possible
		$stcReturn["headers"]["Status-Code"] = $numError;
		$stcReturn["headers"]["Status"] = $strError;
		$stcReturn["content"] = "Error: {$strError} ({$numError})";
	} else {
		// connection made - send headers
		$strOut = "GET {$strPath} HTTP/1.1\r\n";
		$strOut .= "Host: {$strServer}\r\n";
		$strOut .= "Connection: Close\r\n";
		foreach ($headers as $strName=>$strValue) {
		$strOut .= "$strName: $strValue\r\n";
	}
	$strOut .= "\r\n";
	// get data
	fwrite($objSocket, $strOut);
	$strIn = "";
	while (!feof($objSocket)) {
		$strIn .= fgets($objSocket, 128);
	}
	fclose($objSocket);

	// split data into lines
	$aryIn = explode("\r\n", $strIn);

	// data is split into headers/content by double CR
	$bHeader = true;
		foreach ($aryIn as $i=>$strLine) {
			if ($i == 0) {
				// first line is [protocol] [status code] [status]
				$stcReturn["headers"]["Protocol"] = preg_replace("/^([^ ]+) ([^ ]+) (.+)$/", "$1", $strLine);
				$stcReturn["headers"]["Status-Code"] = preg_replace("/^([^ ]+) ([^ ]+) (.+)$/", "$2", $strLine);
				$stcReturn["headers"]["Status"] = preg_replace("/^([^ ]+) ([^ ]+) (.+)$/", "$3", $strLine);
			} elseif ($bHeader && $strLine == "") {
				// if line is empty headers have ended
				$bHeader = false;
			} elseif ($bHeader) {
				// set header
				$stcReturn["headers"][preg_replace("/^([^\:]+)\:[ ]*(.+)$/", "$1", $strLine)] = preg_replace("/^([^\:]+)\:[ ]*(.+)$/", "$2", $strLine);
			} else {
				// set content
				$stcReturn["content"] .= $strLine;
				if ($i < count($aryIn)-1) {
					$stcReturn["content"] .= "\r\n";
				}
			}
		}
	}
	return $stcReturn;
}

It seems that getting a good ranking on a search engine can be a double-edged sword. Whilst it helps people find you, it also helps nasty spammers to find a way into your site so they can post their comments. Sure, wordpress does have some spam filtering ability thanks to the akismet plugin, but it would be so mauch better if they can be stopped at the source.

One way I have stopped spammers on my site is by implementing a text field inside a hidden block, as follows:

<!-- would recommend that this actually goes into a CSS file -->
<style type="text/css">
	.spam-check { display:none; }
</style>
..........................
<!-- spam detection -->
<p class="spam-check">
	<input type="text" name="spamcheck" id="fldSpamCheck" value="">
	<label for="fldSpamCheck">Please leave this field blank</label>
</p>
<!-- /spam detection -->

..and then on the processing side I would do something as follows:

// jnet spam detection
if (!isset($_POST['spamcheck']) || $_POST['spamcheck'] != "") {
	die('Error: please do not fill in the field that tells you not to fill it in.');
}
// end jnet spam detection

The beauty of it is that there are no CAPTCHA’s involved, and no thinking on the user’s side. The common trap that these spambots fall into is that they fill out all the fields in the form with useless garbage. Because this field is meant to be blank, the submission fails.

Furthermore, any user with a CSS enabled browser does not see the field. A user who can see the field can tell from the label that it is not meant to be filled in. So everyone wins! (Except the nasty spammers).

In wordpress, you will need to add the first code block to the files:

• /wp-content/themes/[your_theme]/comments.php
• /wp-content/themes/[your_theme]/comments-popup.php

…and you will need to add the second code block to the following file:

• /wp-comments-post.php

…and you’ll be done! At least until the spammers figure out how to get around it.