Wht does running PHP as CGI really mean?

  • I’m with Dreamhost and I know they disabled the allow_url_fopen() functionality. A couple of the plugins don’t work because of that, including the plugin manager. I’d like to add a few more plugins to my site, but I was wondering what I should look for so I’ll know ahead of time whether it will work with my host or not.

    For instance, I’m interested in Chris Metcalf’s Delicious Plugin that requires the Magpie RSS parser in PHP. Can I assume that this will be a problem because of the PHP. What exactly does not having the allow_url-fopen () functionality limit me from? Are there other Dreamhost users that know that certain plugins just won’t work with Dreamhost right now?

    Thanks.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

  • Disallowing allow_url_fopen() means that you cannot treat remote URLs as files. For example, my garavatars plugin copies the gravatar image from gravatar.com to your local server through the allow_url_fopen() function. If the function is disabled by your host, my plugin will not be able to copy the image to your host.

    I’ve recently learned that Dreamhost also puts a cap on the maximum number of message recipients in outgoing email. I don’t know what number is the maximum. I found out because a user of my subscribe2 plugin was unable to send new post notifications to his 40+ subscribers.

    Thread Starter nscott

    (@nscott)

    So, wouldn’t this also be a problem with bringing in my delicious links, which would also be an external url?

    if the del.icio.us links are fetched AS A FILE, then yes. If it’s using some XMLRPC, then maybe not.

    Thread Starter nscott

    (@nscott)

    thanks

    I don’t know what plugins won’t work with Dreamhost, but when trying out new plugins just search for fopen() in the code and check if they try opening remote files… if so, you will know that it won’t work.

    curl works and if you’re after a delicous plugin this one looks like a good choice:

    https://linuxbrit.co.uk/blog/2004/10/01/wordpress-delicious-plugin-10/

    Also looks like a plugin manager using curl is a good project for someone to write =)

    CG-FeedReader also doesn’t work because of the allow_url_fopen()

    @nscott;

    If you want to use the Plugin Manager on Dreamhost with, I’ve modified it to work with CURL, you can get it from here.

    Regards

    CG-FeedRead works fine on DreamHost to the best of my knowledge (check out https://www.realtechnews.com/blog/rtnews.php) — I use a custom XML reader, which has its own internal socket-based data retrieval. Just needs socket and libxml(2) support installed under PHP (but doesn’t require curl or other methods). If it isn’t working for you, and you’re on DH, give me a shout at cgcode at chait dot net, as it really should be (and I might need to talk to DH techs if it isn’t…).

    And yes, you can use CG-FeedRead to process delicious… If someone would like a delicious plugin with more capabilities, lemme know — should be simple enhancement of the current xml processor. But you can already grab things like delicious/rss/popular for a sidebar…

    -d

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • The topic ‘Wht does running PHP as CGI really mean?’ is closed to new replies.