Curlest

This plugin provides a shortcode called [curlest] which fetches and displays the raw content of a given HTTP URL as the shortcode’s output.

Third party service description

This plugin does not make use of any third party services. No data is collected or submitted by this plugin.

This plugin’s source code may be verified for confirmation.

Usage

Install and activate the plugin.

Use the Curlest shortcode inside a WordPress post or page:

[curlest url="" cache="" timeout="" selector=""]

• Valid values for url:

  • e.g. https://example.com/index.html

• Valid values for cache:

  • nocache: No caching, i.e. always fetch fresh new URL contents during each shortcode request.

  • The following expressions will always respond with cached URL contents if available, and only fetches new URL data asynchronously, if the cached data has expired based on the given interval, where N is a number:

  • N s or N seconds
  • N m or N minutes
  • N h or N hours

  • N d or N days

  • The following expressions may respond with cached URL contents, if the cached data has not yet expired, based on the given interval. The difference between the above expressions and the below is, with the above, if the cached data is stale (expired), the stale data will still be responded, but with the below (i.e. when the fresh option is added), stale data will never be responded; new data will first be fetched during the shortcode request before the new data is responded, where new data is fetched based on the given interval, and where N is a number:

  • N s fresh or N seconds fresh
  • N m fresh or N minutes fresh
  • N h fresh or N hours fresh
  • N d fresh or N days fresh

• Valid values for timeout:

  • Any number, e.g. 30 for 30 seconds. This parameter indicates how long to wait for a response when fetching the URL, before responding with an empty string.

• Valid values for selector:

  • Any CSS selector, for example div.a div.b.c .d-e to return the inner HTML as per the given CSS selector, from the contents of a fetched HTML document. It is assumed, when a CSS selector expression value is provided for this parameter, that the fetched URL contents is valid HTML; otherwise, if the fetched URL Does not contain valid HTML, the shortcode’s output will be blank.

Is this plugin free to use?

Yes, this plugin is free to use. The source code is available for you to examine what the plugin does and how it works.