file_get_contents($url): failed to open stream error while trying to access a url directly - file-get-contents

Question

In my laravel app I installed stevebauman/location": "1.3.*
It works just fine in my local server. After I uploaded it to the remote server, this line
$contents = json_decode(file_get_contents($this->url.$ip), true);
in the file
F:\xampp\htdocs\news5.2.23\vendor\stevebauman\location\src\Drivers\FreeGeoIp.php
is throwing the error I mentioned.
I searched a lot and tried the following:
I echoed the $url and then copied and directly put in browser, it's all right.
allow_ini_set("allow_url_include", "on");ini_set("allow_url_fopen", "on"); wrote it in index.php
used curl .I will provide the FreeGeoIp Class whereI used curl for testing
<?php
namespace Stevebauman\Location\Drivers;
use Stevebauman\Location\Objects\Location;
use Stevebauman\Location\Location as LocationInstance;
class FreeGeoIp implements DriverInterface
{
/**
* Holds the current Location class instance.
*
* #var LocationInstance
*/
private $instance;
/**
* Holds the configuration instance.
*
* #var \Illuminate\Config\Repository
*/
private $config;
/*
* Holds the drivers URL
*/
private $url;
/**
* Constructor.
*
* #param LocationInstance $instance
*/
public function __construct(LocationInstance $instance)
{
$this->instance = $instance;
$this->config = $this->instance->getConfig();
$this->url = $this->config->get('location.drivers.FreeGeoIp.url');
}
/**
* Retrieves the location from the driver FreeGeoIp and returns a location object.
*
* #param string $ip
*
* #return Location
*/
public function get($ip){
$location = new Location();
$file = $this->file_get_contents_curl(urlencode($this->url.$ip));
die();
return $location;
}
public function file_get_contents_curl($url) {
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
var_dump($ch);
$data = curl_exec($ch);
if($errno = curl_errno($ch)) {
$error_message = curl_strerror($errno);
echo "cURL error ({$errno}):\n {$error_message}.</br>";
}
curl_close($ch);
return $data;
}
}
Then I found this error
cURL error (6): Couldn't resolve host name.
Finally I got somewhere that maybe the server my site is in has a firewall which is blocking outsourced url call. I dont know why that would be!
Interestingly when I tried return redirect('http://freegeoip.lwan.ws/json/visitor_ip') - this line in a function of one of my Controllers, it worked!
So I have to discard the firewall issue also right?
But when I use file_get_contents('http://freegeoip.lwan.ws/json/visitor_ip') in the same function, it doesn't work again.
People seem to be answering my question without reading it at all. Giving me answers which I already tried and mentioned.Please read.

Answer 1

enable allow_url_fopen from your php.ini file