What functions can I use to contact another webpage (to send GET data) and set a timeout with?

I need a function that I can use in my script to contact another script to send it some 开发者_JAVA技巧GET data. But I need to be able to set a timeout so that it only loads for a few seconds, then continues with the rest of the script. I know I could easily use cURL to do this, but I'd like to know if there are any alternatives?

You can specify a timeout for the standard file access functions (like file_get_contents()) using stream_context_create():

<?php
$opts = array(
  'http'=>array(
    'method'=>"GET",
    'timeout' => 5
  )
);

$context = stream_context_create($opts);

$fp = fopen('http://www.example.com', 'r', false, $context);
fpassthru($fp);
fclose($fp);
?>

See the list of context options for an explanation on the timeout option.

This requires, of course, that you can access external URLs using fopen() and consorts.

The nice thing about curl, is it lets you uses threads even though php doesn't support them. So you can make the call to curl_multi, give it a callback, and let the rest of the script run. This way your regular processing isn't blocked. This reduces the need for a short timeout.