Decoding Gzipped Web Page Retrieved via cURL in PHP

Retrieving gzipped web pages with cURL can pose challenges when displaying the content on a browser. Instead of getting the intended HTML, you may end up with raw gzipped data. To resolve this issue, we delve into efficient decoding methods in PHP.

First, we need to understand cURL's behavior. By default, cURL doesn't automatically decode gzipped data. To enable this, we can activate cURL's "auto encoding" mode.

Auto Encoding Mode

Execute the following command to let cURL handle the encoding process:

// Allow cURL to use gzip compression, or any other supported encoding
// A blank string activates 'auto' mode
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_ENCODING, '');

With this setting, cURL will inform the server about supported encoding methods (via the Accept-Encoding header) and automatically decompress the response.

Forced GZIP Encoding

For specific situations, you may prefer to force the header to be Accept-Encoding: gzip. Use this command:

// Allow cURL to use gzip compression, or any other supported encoding
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_ENCODING, 'gzip');

Conclusion

By enabling cURL's auto encoding mode or forcing gzip encoding, you can effortlessly decode gzipped web pages retrieved via cURL in PHP. Refer to the PHP documentation for more details on curl_setopt.