This script uses both cUrl and fsockopen should I get rid of one ?

[jeddiki]

Hi,

I am modifying a ipn script for my use and want to fully understand what it is doing. It seems to me that it is trying to do a cUrl and if that fails it uses a fsockopen function.

Here are the two functions that I am talking about:

function doTheCurl () {
  $req = 'cmd=_notify-validate';
  foreach ($_POST as $key => $value) {
    $value = urlencode(stripslashes($value));
    $req .= "&$key=$value";
    }
    $ch = curl_init();

    // check to see if this is sandbox or not
    if ($_POST["test_ipn"] == 1){
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr");
    }
    else
    {
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr");
    }

  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $req);
    curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    $paypal_response = curl_exec ($ch);
    curl_close($ch);
    return $paypal_response;
}  // end function

function doTheHttp () {
  $req = 'cmd=_notify-validate';
    foreach ($_POST as $key => $value){
      $value = urlencode(stripslashes($value));
        $req .= "&$key=$value";
        }
  // post back to PayPal system to validate
    $header .= "POST /cgi-bin/webscr HTTP/1.0\r\n";
    $header .= "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n";
    $header .= "Content-Length: " . strlen($req) . "\r\n\r\n";

    // check to see if this is sandbox or not.
    if ($_POST["test_ipn"] == 1) {
     $paypal_response = fsockopen ('www.sandbox.paypal.com', 80, $errno, $errstr, 30);
         }
         else {
         $paypal_response = fsockopen ('www.paypal.com', 80, $errno, $errstr, 30);
         }

         if (!$paypal_response) {
           return "ERROR";
             }
             else
             {
             fputs ($paypal_response, $header . $req);
             while (!feof($paypal_response)) {
               $res = fgets ($paypal_response, 1024);
               if (strcmp ($res, "VERIFIED") == 0) {
               return "VERIFIED";
                 }
                 else if (strcmp ($res, "INVALID") == 0) {
                 return "INVALID";
                 }
            }
            fclose ($paypal_response);
        }
        return "ERROR";
}  // end function

The main bit of the program starts with:

$paypal_respons e = doTheCurl();
if (!$paypal_respo nse) {
$paypal_respons e = doTheHttp();
}
else
{
echo "We have an Error";
}

Then it starts getting the variables:

//get variables
$receiver_email = $_POST['receiver_email'];
$first_name = $_POST['first_name'];
etc
etc

I guess that these variables are picked up using either of the two
functions - hence my questions about why they are being used.

These are the question that I have about it:
1) This script seems to "prefer" the Curl function - Is it
better method? why ?
2) Since the script will be running on my server, so long as I have curl
installed - Why should it not work ?
3) Following on from 2 - do I need a back up function ?

4) Should I keep both functions or scrap one of them, in order to concentrate on one of them ? ( and which one ? )

Thanks for any comments and help with this :)

[jeddiki]

So doesn't anyone know anything about this stuff ?

Would really appreciate some help :)