Title: fetch_feed() returns no rss data Last modified: February 14, 2018 --- # fetch_feed() returns no rss data * Resolved [niska](https://wordpress.org/support/users/niska/) * (@niska) * [8 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fetch_feed-returns-no-rss-data/) * I recently moved to a new server that has PHP 7.0. Everything seems to be working but I have a problem with the fetch_feed() function. It doesn’t return any data. I’m using the code below to test and have tested with a lot of feeds. Same result every time. * I’ve also tried using curl from the command line of the server, and this is working without any problem. So there seems to be a problem in wordpress. * I have tried WP_DEBUG and enabling error_reporting. But I get no errors. * What could be the problem? * ``` add_action('init', 'testfetchfeed'); function testfetchfeed () { if (isset($_REQUEST['testfetchfeed'])) { $rss = fetch_feed('http://en.blog.wordpress.com/feed/'); if (is_wp_error($rss)) { echo $rss->get_error_message(); } else { print_r($rss); } exit; } } ``` * ``` SimplePie Object ( [data] => Array ( ) [error] => [sanitize] => WP_SimplePie_Sanitize_KSES Object ( [base] => [remove_div] => 1 [image_handler] => [strip_htmltags] => Array ( [0] => base [1] => blink [2] => body [3] => doctype [4] => embed [5] => font [6] => form [7] => frame [8] => frameset [9] => html [10] => iframe [11] => input [12] => marquee [13] => meta [14] => noscript [15] => object [16] => param [17] => script [18] => style ) [encode_instead_of_strip] => [strip_attributes] => Array ( [0] => bgsound [1] => class [2] => expr [3] => id [4] => style [5] => onclick [6] => onerror [7] => onfinish [8] => onmouseover [9] => onmouseout [10] => onfocus [11] => onblur [12] => lowsrc [13] => dynsrc ) [strip_comments] => [output_encoding] => UTF-8 [enable_cache] => 1 [cache_location] => ./cache [cache_name_function] => md5 [timeout] => 10 [useragent] => [force_fsockopen] => [replace_url_attributes] => Array ( [a] => href [area] => href [blockquote] => cite [del] => cite [form] => action [img] => Array ( [0] => longdesc [1] => src ) [input] => src [ins] => cite [q] => cite ) ) [useragent] => SimplePie/1.3.1 (Feed Parser; http://simplepie.org; Allow like Gecko) Build/20141218193430 [feed_url] => http://en.blog.wordpress.com/feed/ [file] => [raw_data] => [timeout] => 10 [force_fsockopen] => [force_feed] => [cache] => 1 [cache_duration] => 86400 [autodiscovery_cache_duration] => 604800 [cache_location] => ./cache [cache_name_function] => md5 [order_by_date] => 1 [input_encoding] => [autodiscovery] => 31 [registry] => SimplePie_Registry Object ( [default:protected] => Array ( [Cache] => SimplePie_Cache [Locator] => SimplePie_Locator [Parser] => SimplePie_Parser [File] => SimplePie_File [Sanitize] => SimplePie_Sanitize [Item] => SimplePie_Item [Author] => SimplePie_Author [Category] => SimplePie_Category [Enclosure] => SimplePie_Enclosure [Caption] => SimplePie_Caption [Copyright] => SimplePie_Copyright [Credit] => SimplePie_Credit [Rating] => SimplePie_Rating [Restriction] => SimplePie_Restriction [Content_Type_Sniffer] => SimplePie_Content_Type_Sniffer [Source] => SimplePie_Source [Misc] => SimplePie_Misc [XML_Declaration_Parser] => SimplePie_XML_Declaration_Parser [Parse_Date] => SimplePie_Parse_Date ) [classes:protected] => Array ( [Sanitize] => WP_SimplePie_Sanitize_KSES [Cache] => WP_Feed_Cache [File] => WP_SimplePie_File ) [legacy:protected] => Array ( [0] => WP_SimplePie_Sanitize_KSES [1] => WP_Feed_Cache [2] => WP_SimplePie_File ) ) [max_checked_feeds] => 10 [all_discovered_feeds] => Array ( ) [image_handler] => [multifeed_url] => Array ( ) [multifeed_objects] => Array ( ) [config_settings] => [item_limit] => 0 [strip_attributes] => Array ( [0] => bgsound [1] => class [2] => expr [3] => id [4] => style [5] => onclick [6] => onerror [7] => onfinish [8] => onmouseover [9] => onmouseout [10] => onfocus [11] => onblur [12] => lowsrc [13] => dynsrc ) [strip_htmltags] => Array ( [0] => base [1] => blink [2] => body [3] => doctype [4] => embed [5] => font [6] => form [7] => frame [8] => frameset [9] => html [10] => iframe [11] => input [12] => marquee [13] => meta [14] => noscript [15] => object [16] => param [17] => script [18] => style ) ) ``` - This topic was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by [niska](https://wordpress.org/support/users/niska/). - This topic was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by [niska](https://wordpress.org/support/users/niska/). Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total) * Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/) * (@bcworkz) * [8 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fetch_feed-returns-no-rss-data/#post-9974577) * I used your code on my site and it returns feeds without any trouble (PHP 7). Thus the problem is something with one of your plugins or your theme that apparently does not play well with PHP 7. Please install and activate the [health-check](https://wordpress.org/plugins/health-check/) plugin. Temporarily copy your code to the functions.php file of the twentyseventeen theme. If it does not exist on your installation, install it, as it’s needed by health-check. From the dashboard part of the admin menu, open health check and go to the troubleshooting tab. Activate troubleshooting mode. You should find your test code outputs feed data. * Start restoring your theme and plugins from the troubleshooting admin bar item. Restore one at a time, testing after each. When your test again fails, the last activated module has a problem with PHP 7. * Thread Starter [niska](https://wordpress.org/support/users/niska/) * (@niska) * [8 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fetch_feed-returns-no-rss-data/#post-9974764) * Thanks for reply. I have installed and activated health-check plugin. I couldn’t find anything problematic about my install, except it recommends me to update to PHP 7.2 (I’m using PHP 7.0.27). See info below. * I used the health-check troubleshoot mode to disable all plugins and themes – except the code above. However, my test code still doesnt output feed data. * Not sure what to do now. I’m pretty sure it is not my server that has problems, since curl from the command line is working. Also, downloading and installing plugins from within wp-admin is working. So fetching external data is working. For some reason external data can not be fetched using the fetch_feed() function. * Any ideas on how to proceed? * ``` ### WordPress ### Version: 4.9.4 Language: sv_SE Permalink structure: /%postname%/ Is this site using HTTPS?: Yes Can anyone register on this site?: No Default comment status: closed Is this a multisite?: No User Count: 474 Communication with WordPress.org: WordPress.org is reachable Create loopback requests: The loopback request to your site completed successfully. ### Drop-ins ### advanced-cache.php: Advanced caching plugin. ### Active theme ### Name: Version: 1.0.0 Author: Anonymous Author website: Undefined Parent theme: Twenty Sixteen Supported theme features: automatic-feed-links, title-tag, custom-logo, post-thumbnails, menus, html5, post-formats, editor-style, customize-selective-refresh-widgets, custom-background, custom-header, widgets ### Other themes (1) ### Twenty Sixteen (twentysixteen): Version 1.4 by the WordPress team ### Must Use Plugins (1) ### Health Check Disable Plugins: Version 1.1 ### Media handling ### Active editor: WP_Image_Editor_GD Imagick Module Version: Imagick not available ImageMagick Version: Imagick not available GD Version: bundled (2.1.0 compatible) Ghostscript Version: Unable to determine if Ghostscript is installed ### Server ### Server architecture: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 x86_64 PHP Version: 7.0.27-1~dotdeb+8.1 (Supports 64bit values) PHP SAPI: fpm-fcgi PHP max input variables: 1000 PHP time limit: 300 PHP memory limit: 256M Max input time: 60 Upload max filesize: 2M PHP post max size: 8M cURL Version: 7.38.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1t SUHOSIN installed: No Is the Imagick library available: No ### Database ### Extension: mysqli Server version: 5.5.5-10.1.31-MariaDB-1~jessie Client version: mysqlnd 5.0.12-dev - 20150407 - $Id: b6c5906d452ec590732a93b051f3827e02749b83 $ Database prefix: wp_ ### WordPress constants ### ABSPATH: /www/wp/public_html/ WP_HOME: Undefined WP_SITEURL: Undefined WP_DEBUG: Disabled WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT: 256M WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY: Enabled WP_DEBUG_LOG: Disabled SCRIPT_DEBUG: Disabled WP_CACHE: Enabled CONCATENATE_SCRIPTS: Undefined COMPRESS_SCRIPTS: Undefined COMPRESS_CSS: Undefined WP_LOCAL_DEV: Undefined ### Filesystem permissions ### The main WordPress directory: Writable The wp-content directory: Writable The uploads directory: Writable The plugins directory: Writable The themes directory: Writable The Must Use Plugins directory: Writable ``` * Thread Starter [niska](https://wordpress.org/support/users/niska/) * (@niska) * [8 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fetch_feed-returns-no-rss-data/#post-9975081) * phpinfo says * allow_url_fopen = Off cURL support = enabled * Not sure if it matters or not. * Thread Starter [niska](https://wordpress.org/support/users/niska/) * (@niska) * [8 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fetch_feed-returns-no-rss-data/#post-9976544) * This code is working: * ``` $c = curl_init(); curl_setopt($c, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://en.blog.wordpress.com/feed/'); curl_setopt($c, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true); $result = curl_exec($c); ``` * I think fetch_feed() is using curl – so why is not fetch_feed() working for me? * Please advice. * Thread Starter [niska](https://wordpress.org/support/users/niska/) * (@niska) * [8 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fetch_feed-returns-no-rss-data/#post-9979161) * I solved it. php-xml parser module was missing. * Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/) * (@bcworkz) * [8 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fetch_feed-returns-no-rss-data/#post-9979220) * fetch_feed() uses SimplePie_File, which in turn tries to use cURL if available. It falls back to file_get_contents() if cURL fails. * I take it the SimplePie object in your OP is what your code outputs? That’s quite strange to get an empty data element. As you can imagine, it usually contains an RSS feed data structure. Any errors that occur end up returning a WP_Error object, which results in a simple error message being output by WP such as ‘Unable to decode HTTP “gzip” stream’ or whatever. SimplePie returning an empty object is not “seen” as an error by WP. SimplePie is pretty good at catching error conditions and reporting them back, so getting an empty object without throwing an error is rather unusual. * Are you really trying to get the feed from blog.wordpress.com or is that a substitute for a site you’d rather not disclose? One thought was the site is returning an empty feed and SimplePie is correctly returning what it got from the site. Then the problem is that site and not your server. But of course the WP blog feed works and the problem lies elsewhere if that is indeed the feed you are trying to get. * But then you report a direct cURL request gets a feed. I assume you are using whatever feed URL you really want, so that throws suspicion back to fetch_feed(). fetch_feed() basically just instantiates SimplePie and tells it to get a feed. There’s not much to get wrong there. All the heavy lifting, such as it is, is done by SimplePie. * Since I cannot replicate the issue you are experiencing, it’s difficult to suggest a solution, other than do what I would do if I could replicate the problem. I would trace through the relevant code, returning or outputting debug data at key points to verify all is so far working correctly. Eventually I’d come across the point where things go wrong and it’s usually clear at that point why it went wrong and what is needed to prevent it. * It can be very tedious tracing through source code, hoping to find where the error occurs. It’s often more efficient to “divide and conquer”. Find a point in source roughly halfway through the process and check the status there. This tells you if the problem is before or after that point. Pick another point roughly halfway into the problem half and check again. Keep dividing like that until you’ve drilled down to the exact place where the problem occurs. This is most effective if you understand the code on sight. If it’s not clear, stepping through procedurally will better help you understand what the code is doing, as tedious as that may be. * [fetch_feed() source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/fetch_feed/#source) [SimplePie Source](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/src/wp-includes/class-simplepie.php) [SimplePie_File Source](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/src/wp-includes/SimplePie/File.php) * Thread Starter [niska](https://wordpress.org/support/users/niska/) * (@niska) * [8 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fetch_feed-returns-no-rss-data/#post-9979386) * Thanks for your reply. I have marked this thread as solved since the solution was to install the php-xml parser module. * sudo apt-get install php-xml * SimplePie doesn’t throw an error in this scenario so that’s why it was hard to find the solution. * Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/) * (@bcworkz) * [8 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fetch_feed-returns-no-rss-data/#post-9982838) * Ah! Yes, XML support is rather important for handling feeds 🙂 Nice work tracking that down. I’m glad you were able to solve this. Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total) The topic ‘fetch_feed() returns no rss data’ is closed to new replies. * In: [Developing with WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/wp-advanced/) * 8 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/) * Last activity: [8 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fetch_feed-returns-no-rss-data/#post-9982838) * Status: resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics