How can PHP be used to read external HTML files and determine their status?

To read external HTML files and determine their status using PHP, you can use the file_get_contents() function to retrieve the contents of the external file and then check the HTTP response code using the get_headers() function. This allows you to determine if the file exists and if it is accessible. 

$url = 'https://www.example.com/externalfile.html';
$html = file_get_contents($url);

if($html !== false){
    $headers = get_headers($url);
    $status = substr($headers[0], 9, 3);
    
    if($status == '200'){
        echo 'The file is accessible and the status is OK.';
    } else {
        echo 'The file is not accessible. Status code: ' . $status;
    }
} else {
    echo 'Failed to retrieve the file contents.';
}

Keywords

PHP file_get_contents fopen HTTP status code error handling

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