Here's what I changed to allow easybitcoin-PHP which doesn't require changing the php.ini for fopen. Bitcoin's dev wiki recommends not using jsonrpc directly and suggests easybitcoin-PHP.

The easybitcoin library
https://github.com/aceat64/EasyBitcoin-PHP


Add the library to the project :

In common.php
include('easybitcoin.php');

Remove the old
#include('jsonRPCClient.php');



In wallet/classes/Client.php

Change Row 12 :
               $this->jsonrpc = new jsonRPCClient($this->uri);
to
                $this->jsonrpc = new Bitcoin($user, $pass, $host, $port);