How can I check if a URL exists via PHP?

Question

How do I check if a URL exists (not 404) in PHP?

Answer 1

karim79's get_headers() solution didn't worked for me as I gotten crazy results with Pinterest.

get_headers(): SSL operation failed with code 1. OpenSSL Error messages: error:14090086:SSL routines:SSL3_GET_SERVER_CERTIFICATE:certificate verify failed

Array
(
    [url] => https://www.pinterest.com/jonathan_parl/
    [exists] => 
)

get_headers(): Failed to enable crypto

Array
(
    [url] => https://www.pinterest.com/jonathan_parl/
    [exists] => 
)

get_headers(https://www.pinterest.com/jonathan_parl/): failed to open stream: operation failed

Array
(
    [url] => https://www.pinterest.com/jonathan_parl/
    [exists] => 
) 

Anyway, this developer demonstrates that cURL is way faster than get_headers():

http://php.net/manual/fr/function.get-headers.php#104723

Since many people asked for karim79 to fix is cURL solution, here's the solution I built today.

/**
* Send an HTTP request to a the $url and check the header posted back.
*
* @param $url String url to which we must send the request.
* @param $failCodeList Int array list of code for which the page is considered invalid.
*
* @return Boolean
*/
public static function isUrlExists($url, array $failCodeList = array(404)){

    $exists = false;

    if(!StringManager::stringStartWith($url, "http") and !StringManager::stringStartWith($url, "ftp")){

        $url = "https://" . $url;
    }

    if (preg_match(RegularExpression::URL, $url)){

        $handle = curl_init($url);


        curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

        curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

        curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_HEADER, true);

        curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_NOBODY, true);

        curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, true);


        $headers = curl_exec($handle);

        curl_close($handle);


        if (empty($failCodeList) or !is_array($failCodeList)){

            $failCodeList = array(404); 
        }

        if (!empty($headers)){

            $exists = true;

            $headers = explode(PHP_EOL, $headers);

            foreach($failCodeList as $code){

                if (is_numeric($code) and strpos($headers[0], strval($code)) !== false){

                    $exists = false;

                    break;  
                }
            }
        }
    }

    return $exists;
}

Let me explains the curl options:

CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER: return a string instead of displaying the calling page on the screen.

CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER: cUrl won't checkout the certificate

CURLOPT_HEADER: include the header in the string

CURLOPT_NOBODY: don't include the body in the string

CURLOPT_USERAGENT: some site needs that to function properly (by example : https://plus.google.com)

---

Additional note: In this function I'm using Diego Perini's regex for validating the URL before sending the request:

const URL = "%^(?:(?:https?|ftp)://)(?:\S+(?::\S*)?@|\d{1,3}(?:\.\d{1,3}){3}|(?:(?:[a-z\d\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}]+-?)*[a-z\d\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}]+)(?:\.(?:[a-z\d\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}]+-?)*[a-z\d\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}]+)*(?:\.[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}]{2,6}))(?::\d+)?(?:[^\s]*)?$%iu"; //@copyright Diego Perini

Additional note 2: I explode the header string and user headers[0] to be sure to only validate only the return code and message (example: 200, 404, 405, etc.)

Additional note 3: Sometime validating only the code 404 is not enough (see the unit test), so there's an optional $failCodeList parameter to supply all the code list to reject.

And, of course, here's the unit test (including all the popular social network) to legitimates my coding:

public function testIsUrlExists(){

//invalid
$this->assertFalse(ToolManager::isUrlExists("woot"));

$this->assertFalse(ToolManager::isUrlExists("https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.parentlevesque4545646456"));

$this->assertFalse(ToolManager::isUrlExists("https://plus.google.com/+JonathanParentL%C3%A9vesque890800"));

$this->assertFalse(ToolManager::isUrlExists("https://instagram.com/mariloubiz1232132/", array(404, 405)));

$this->assertFalse(ToolManager::isUrlExists("https://www.pinterest.com/jonathan_parl1231/"));

$this->assertFalse(ToolManager::isUrlExists("https://regex101.com/546465465456"));

$this->assertFalse(ToolManager::isUrlExists("https://twitter.com/arcadefire4566546"));

$this->assertFalse(ToolManager::isUrlExists("https://vimeo.com/**($%?%$", array(400, 405)));

$this->assertFalse(ToolManager::isUrlExists("https://www.youtube.com/user/Darkjo666456456456"));


//valid
$this->assertTrue(ToolManager::isUrlExists("www.google.ca"));

$this->assertTrue(ToolManager::isUrlExists("https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.parentlevesque"));

$this->assertTrue(ToolManager::isUrlExists("https://plus.google.com/+JonathanParentL%C3%A9vesque"));

$this->assertTrue(ToolManager::isUrlExists("https://instagram.com/mariloubiz/"));

$this->assertTrue(ToolManager::isUrlExists("https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.parentlevesque"));

$this->assertTrue(ToolManager::isUrlExists("https://www.pinterest.com/"));

$this->assertTrue(ToolManager::isUrlExists("https://regex101.com"));

$this->assertTrue(ToolManager::isUrlExists("https://twitter.com/arcadefire"));

$this->assertTrue(ToolManager::isUrlExists("https://vimeo.com/"));

$this->assertTrue(ToolManager::isUrlExists("https://www.youtube.com/user/Darkjo666"));
}

Great success to all,

Jonathan Parent-Lévesque from Montreal