How do I get the final, redirected, canonical URL of a website using PHP?

Question

In the days of link shorteners and Ajax, there can be many links that ultimately point to the same content. I was wondering what the best way is to get the final, best link for

Answer 1

Using Guzzle (a well known and robust HTTP client) you can do it like that:

addSubscriber($history);

    $response = $client->head($url)->send();

    if (!$response->isSuccessful()) {
        throw new \Exception(sprintf("Url %s is not a valid URL or website is down.", $url));
    }

    return $response->getEffectiveUrl();
}