Small PHP script causing memory issues - makes no sence!

PHP
1

I have a script that checks the status of a persons Skype account (online, offline etc), for some reason it has caused resource issues (memory), or atleast it seems to be at fault.

Here is the script:


<?php
$data = file_get_contents('http://mystatus.skype.com/' . $username . '.xml');
preg_match('@<presence xml:lang="NUM">(.*?)</presence>@i', $data, $match);
$status = ($match['0'] == '<presence xml:lang="NUM">2</presence>') ? 'online':'offline';

if($status == 'online'){
     echo 'skype:' . $username . '?call">';
}else{
     echo 'skype:' . $username . '?chat">';
}
?>

I have removed some information from the script (just html), can anyone see an issue here? Does file_get_contents have issues with memory? It is only fetching a small XML file, the XML file definitely exists.

2

Only fetching a small XML file over a network, thats no smal feat. Just putting that out there.

Are you certain this snipplet of code is the cause?

3

Are you sure you get fast response from skype server?

4

It certainly seems to be the cause but if I was absolutely certain I guess I would also know how to fix it lol.

The website is just a simple HTML/CSS site with some elements of PHP but no database connections. This script is the only actual processing that PHP does on the pages (every page).

I cannot be 100% sure that Skype is responding well but even if it is slow, would it cause memory issues on the server and not just a slow page load?

5

Unless this is critical to the application, I’d move this to an AJAX call and let the client deal with it. If it is critical, create a cron job to cycle through the users which you intend to target and save the response locally. Additionally, be sure to add a timeout factor to all these requests and handle the timeout appropriately.

6

It is not critical and the fall-back is designed to always allow the user to initiate a chat (the script is only to allow the button to initiate a call request if the Skype is online rather than a chat/message).

Using AJAX is a good idea. I was thinking of running the script once when the use enters the site and caching that value and once the user has been on the site for 5mins it re-checks. Maybe I should combine the two.