Getting rid of file_get_contents()

Martin,

If you look at the source code, you’ll see we use multiple methods to try and retrieve the remote image to allow for variations between web hosts. The issues being complained about there are not inherently related to that method.

We’ll evaluate your suggestion in a future release, but I assure you that method is working for the vast majority of users. If it isn’t something we choose to include, we’ll be sure to add a hook where you can override this functionality within your theme.

You can track this here: https://github.com/alleyinteractive/apple-news/issues/204

Hello Bradford,

WP HTTP already does that (it tries cURL, sockets, fopen…) so we recommend you don’t try to handle that on your own and just use wp_remote_get().

Thanks,
Martin

Hi Bradford,

When coding for a service as widespread as Apple News, vast majority of users isn’t really a solution. There are edge cases and lots of them. Our fix fixes many of them.

We not really keen on a hook where we would have to fight broken Apple News on a theme by theme basis. As an agency we have enough to look after without make work when a permanent solution could be added instead.

Thanks for opening the GitHub issue but we aren’t looking for a hook, we’re looking for more robust core functionality (and we’re even willing to offer it to you on a silver platter: see above).

Thanks.

Martin,

We’re an agency too and we understand your perspective on the plugin and edge cases. In fact, given that the current code has been running fine for some time, we need to ensure that your solution isn’t going to introduce edge cases!

That said, your perspective on a “broken Apple News” is incorrect as this is not broken for the vast majority of users, including some of the largest sites on the internet.

However, as stated, we are evaluating your solution for inclusion in the next version of the plugin.

We’ve tested this and we’ll be including this in version 1.1.6. There’s a pull request open now, pending internal review:

https://github.com/alleyinteractive/apple-news/pull/219

Thanks.

Hi Bradford,

Thank you very much for including our improvement. Your hard work on Publish to Apple News is much appreciated.

Alec