file get contents - PHP file_get_contents breaks up at & -

solution because objective-c doesn't encode & (because reserved) should create own method. source: sending amp (&) using post obj-c

for ios , android app use php script data. script has 1 argument link. script looks this:

$link= urlvariable('link');  $source = file_get_contents($link);  $xml = new simplexmlelement($source);  //do stuff xml 

but when send link & symbol crashes on file_get_contents

warning: file_get_contents(https://www.example.com/xxxx/name_more_names_) [function.file-get-contents]: failed open stream: http request failed! 

but full argument is

name_more_names_&_more_names_after_the_ampersand.file 

i tried encoding link before sending file_get_contents no luck.

also tried:

function file_get_contents_utf8($fn) {      $content = file_get_contents($fn);       return mb_convert_encoding($content, 'utf-8',           mb_detect_encoding($content, 'utf-8, iso-8859-1', true)); } 

with same results.

does know why breaks @ &? i'm no web developer app developer excuse me lack of knowledge on subject.

edit tried this:

$link= urlvariable('link');  $encodedlink = urlencode($link); $source = file_get_contents($encodedlink); 

this result:

warning: file_get_contents(https%3a%2f%2fwww.example.com%2fxxxxx%2fname_more_names_) [function.file-get-contents]: failed open stream: no such file or directory in 

edit #2

i found why url stops @ & symbol. retrieve argument url method:

    function  urlvariable($pvariablename)     {         if (isset ($_get[$pvariablename]))            {             $lvariable = $_get[$pvariablename];         }         else         {             $lvariable = null;         }         return $lvariable;     } 

and _get() separates arguments & symbol right?

the url should have ampersands encoded:

https://www.example.com/xxxx/name_more_names_%26_more_names_after_the_ampersand.file 

in php can encode path this:

$path = parse_url($url, php_url_path); $url = substr_replace($url, '/' . urlencode(substr($path, 1)), strpos($url, $path), strlen($path)); 

update

if have tree structure, need more work:

$path = parse_url($url, php_url_path); $newpath = '/' . str_replace('%2f', '/', urlencode(substr($path, 1)));  $url = substr_replace($url, $newpath, strpos($url, $path), strlen($path)); 

update 2

if script called script?link=<some-url>, need make sure <some-url> encoded too:

script?link=https%3a%2f%2fwww.example.com%2fxxxxx%2fname_more_names_%26_more_names_after_the_ampersand.file