sftp

I have a script that has to make a connection via sftp and read the contents of a file. In the shell, I can simply type sftp myname@remoteserver As I use the keys on the server so don't need a password. How can I make this connection in php so I can get the data contents nightly? We installed teh ssh2 pecl package and I saw an example showing: $file=fopen("ssh2.sftp://myname@remoteserver:22/files/myfile.txt","r"); Yet php throws the error that it can't find the ssh2.sftp wrapper. First, if ssh2 installed properly is this fopen syntax correct? Second, how would I know if ssh2 is install properly? THanks!