Tag: cURL

PHP on App Engine Does cURL

AppEngine_512pxA nice upgrade came about in the 1.9.18 release of App Engine SDK: PHP on App Engine can now support cURL. There are a few caveats that go with it, but it’s a nice step forward.

There are two implementations: cURL_lite and full fledged cURL.

To Enable cURL_lite

  1. Add the directive google_app_engine.enable_curl_lite = “1” to your php.ini file.

Caveats

  • cURL_lite is only allowed to make calls to HTTP or HTTPS clients
  • cURL_lite didn’t work on my local development server without tweaking runtime to php55, but it works for php in production
  • cURL_lite doesn’t require application to have billing enabled

To Enable cURL

  1. Change your runtime setting in your app.yaml from php to php55.
  1. Add the directive extension = “curl.so” to your php.ini file.

Caveats

  • cURL is only available in App Engine’s PHP 5.5 implementation
  • cURL can only be used by applications that have billing enabled
  • cURL is limited by the restrictions of App Engine’s sockets but include:
    • Limited from targeting Google domains
    • May be reclaimed after 2 minutes of inactivity

Now regardless of the implementation, you still call cURL using the “curl_” commands, just the underlying technology changes.

Supporting Documentation