CodeIgniter Curl Head first

gistfile1.aw

/* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 * This fetches the header only for a remote page.
 * 
 * Pro's:
 * - when fetching static stuff (images, css, html)
 *   you can first compare modified date or statuscode (304) 
 *
 * Con's:
 * - hitting a heavy webapp with dynamic content might be slow,
 *   you essentially hit the remote page two times
 *
 * http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1378915/header-only-retreival-in-php-via-curl
 *
 */



function fetch_page($remote_url, $header_only = FALSE)
{
	$this->curl->create($remote_url);
	$this->curl->option(CURLOPT_FILETIME, TRUE);

	if ($header_only) $this->curl->option(CURLOPT_NOBODY, TRUE);

	return $this->curl->execute();
}




$this->fetch_page($remote_url, TRUE); // only fetch header

$modified_date = $this->curl->info['filetime'];

if ($modified_date == -1)
{
	$modified_date = time();
}

$modified_date = gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s', $modified_date);



// compare the modified date to what we have

if ($item->modified != $modified_date)
{
	$item->content = $this->fetch_page($remote_url); // get full page
}