Has URL-file access been disabled?

[sherman]

I have been running a website that uses XML APIs from other sites to get data. For example, I use the wunderground.com XML API to get weather data. Prior to sometime today, this was all working fine. Now, loading documents from URLs (documents that are from other domains) is forbidden in PHP, and the property "allow_url_fopen" is set to "off". I am assuming that this used to be "on" and was recently changed to "off".

I understand that this may have been due to the security risk that "allow_url_fopen" causes. Still, I'd like to have some way to use XML APIs from other sites (doing this is not forbidden by the Terms of Service). I'd like to know:
1) Is there any way that allow_url_fopen can be set to "on" for me?
2) Is there some way I can bypass the allow_url_fopen restriction (without breaking the TOS) so that I can use these APIs?
3) Is there any other way that I can access any sort of APIs (other than XML, for example) from external websites?

Thank you for your help!

 

[descalzo]

1. They cannot make individual exceptions
2. Not that I know of
3. Have you looked at the PHP cURL library?

 

[sherman]

Thanks for your help! That is what I was looking for. cURL is independent of allow_url_fopen and thus can access external websites. I tried it and it works. Thanks!