note 86106 modified in function.ftp-fget by danbrown

Another ftp_get_contents approach, using a temperary stream handler. Returns file contents as string. 

<?php
function ftp_get_contents ($conn_id, $filename,
//Create temp handler:
    $tempHandle = fopen('php://temp', 'r+');

//Get file from FTP assuming that it exists:
    ftp_fget($conn_id, $tempHandle, $filename, FTP_ASCII, 0));

    //Getting detailed stats to check filesize:
    $fstats = fstat($tempHandle);

    return fread($tempHandle, $fstats['size']);
}
?>

--was--
Another ftp_get_contents approach, using a temperary stream handler. Returns file contents as string. 

function ftp_get_contents ($conn_id, $filename,
//Create temp handler:
    $tempHandle = fopen('php://temp', 'r+');

//Get file from FTP assuming that it exists:
    ftp_fget($conn_id, $tempHandle, $filename, FTP_ASCII, 0));

    //Getting detailed stats to check filesize:
    $fstats = fstat($tempHandle);

    return fread($tempHandle, $fstats['size']);
}

http://php.net/manual/en/function.ftp-fget.php