What is cURL in PHP

Question

In PHP  I see the word cURL in many PHP projects   What is it   How does it work   Reference Link  cURL

User · Answer

cURL

cURL is a way you can hit a URL from your code to get a HTML response from it.
It's used for command line cURL from the PHP language.
cURL is a library that lets you make HTTP requests in PHP.

PHP supports libcurl, a library created by Daniel Stenberg, that allows you to connect and communicate to many different types of servers with many different types of protocols. libcurl currently supports the http, https, ftp, gopher, telnet, dict, file, and ldap protocols. libcurl also supports HTTPS certificates, HTTP POST, HTTP PUT, FTP uploading (this can also be done with PHP's ftp extension), HTTP form based upload, proxies, cookies, and user+password authentication.

Once you've compiled PHP with cURL support, you can begin using the cURL functions. The basic idea behind the cURL functions is that you initialize a cURL session using the curl_init(), then you can set all your options for the transfer via the curl_setopt(), then you can execute the session with the curl_exec() and then you finish off your session using the curl_close().

Sample Code

// error reporting
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set("display_errors", 1);

//setting url
$url = 'http://example.com/api';

//data
$data = array("message" => "Hello World!!!");

try {
    $ch = curl_init($url);
    $data_string = json_encode($data);

    if (FALSE === $ch)
        throw new Exception('failed to initialize');

        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "POST");
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data_string);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, false);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array( 'Content-Type: application/json', 'Content-Length: ' . strlen($data_string)));
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 5);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 5);

        $output = curl_exec($ch);

    if (FALSE === $output)
        throw new Exception(curl_error($ch), curl_errno($ch));

    // ...process $output now
} catch(Exception $e) {

    trigger_error(sprintf(
        'Curl failed with error #%d: %s',
        $e->getCode(), $e->getMessage()),
        E_USER_ERROR);
}

For more information, please check -

User · Answer

CURL in PHP   Summary   The curl exec command in PHP is a bridge to use curl from console   curl exec makes it easy to quickly and easily do GET POST requests  receive responses from other servers like JSON and download files   Warning  Danger   curl is evil and dangerous if used improperly because it is all about getting data from out there in the internet   Someone can get between your curl and the other server and inject a rm -rf   into your response  and then why am I dropped to a console and ls -l doesn t even work anymore   Because you mis underestimated the dangerous power of curl   Don t trust anything that comes back from curl to be safe  even if you are talking to your own servers   You could be pulling back malware to relieve fools of their wealth     Examples   These were done on Ubuntu 12 10   Basic curl from the commandline   el apollo  home el  curl http   i imgur com 4rBHtSm gif  gt  mycat gif     Total      Received   Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current                                  Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed 100  492k  100  492k    0     0  1077k      0 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 1240k   Then you can open up your gif in firefox   firefox mycat gif   Glorious cats evolving Toxoplasma gondii to cause women to keep cats around and men likewise to keep the women around  cURL example get request to hit google com  echo to the commandline   This is done through the phpsh terminal   php gt   ch   curl init     php gt  curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT URL   http   www google com     php gt  curl exec  ch     Which prints and dumps a mess of condensed html and javascript  from google  to the console  cURL example put the response text into a variable   This is done through the phpsh terminal   php gt   ch   curl init     php gt  curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT URL   http   i imgur com wtQ6yZR gif     php gt  curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT RETURNTRANSFER  1    php gt   contents   curl exec  ch    php gt  echo  contents    The variable now contains the binary which is an animated gif of a cat  possibilities are infinite  Do a curl from within a PHP file   Put this code in a file called myphp php    lt  php    curl handle curl init      curl setopt  curl handle CURLOPT URL  http   www google com      curl setopt  curl handle CURLOPT CONNECTTIMEOUT 2     curl setopt  curl handle CURLOPT RETURNTRANSFER 1      buffer   curl exec  curl handle     curl close  curl handle     if  empty  buffer          print  Nothing returned from url  lt p gt          else        print  buffer        gt    Then run it via commandline   php  lt  myphp php   You ran myphp php and executed those commands through the php interpreter and dumped a ton of messy html and javascript to screen     You can do GET and POST requests with curl  all you do is specify the parameters as defined here   Using curl to automate HTTP jobs   Reminder of danger   Be careful dumping curl output around  if any of it gets interpreted and executed  your box is owned and your credit card info will be sold to third parties and you ll get a mysterious  900 charge from an Alabama one-man flooring company that s a front for overseas credit card fraud crime ring

User · Answer

cURL is a way you can hit a URL from your code to get a HTML response from it  It s used for command line cURL from the PHP language    lt  php    Step 1  cSession   curl init        Step 2 curl setopt  cSession CURLOPT URL  http   www google com search q curl    curl setopt  cSession CURLOPT RETURNTRANSFER true   curl setopt  cSession CURLOPT HEADER  false       Step 3  result curl exec  cSession      Step 4 curl close  cSession      Step 5 echo  result    gt     Step 1  Initialize a curl session using curl init     Step 2  Set option for CURLOPT URL  This value is the URL which we are sending the request to  Append a search term curl using parameter q   Set option for CURLOPT RETURNTRANSFER  True will tell curl to return the string instead of print it out  Set option for CURLOPT HEADER  false will tell curl to ignore the header in the return value   Step 3  Execute the curl session using curl exec     Step 4  Close the curl session we have created   Step 5  Output the return string   public function curlCall  apiurl   auth   rflag         ch   curl init  apiurl       curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT RETURNTRANSFER  1        if  auth     auth              curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT USERPWD   passw passw          else           curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT USERPWD   ss ss1              curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT RETURNTRANSFER  true        dt   curl exec  ch               curl close  ch       if  rflag    1             dt   json decode  dt true                     return  dt      This is also used for authentication  We can also set the username and password for authentication   For more functionality  see the user manual or the following tutorial   http   php net manual en ref curl php http   www startutorial com articles view php-curl

User · Answer

cURL is a library that lets you make HTTP requests in PHP  Everything you need to know about it  and most other extensions  can be found in the PHP manual      In order to use PHP s cURL functions   you need to install the    libcurl   package  PHP requires that you use   libcurl 7 0 2-beta or higher  In PHP   4 2 3  you will need libcurl version 7 9 0 or higher  From PHP 4 3 0  you will need a libcurl version that s   7 9 8 or higher  PHP 5 0 0 requires a libcurl version 7 10 5 or greater    You can make HTTP requests  without cURL  too  though it requires allow url fopen to be enabled in your php ini file      Make a HTTP GET request and print it  requires allow url fopen to be enabled  print file get contents  http   www example com

User · Answer

Php curl class  GET POST FILES UPLOAD  SESSIONS  SEND POST JSON  FORCE SELFSIGNED SSL TLS     lt  php        Php curl class     class Curl            public  error           function   construct               function Get  url    http   hostname x api php q jabadoo amp txt gin    forceSsl   false  cookie        session   true                   url    url        http build query  data                ch   curl init                curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT URL   url               curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT HEADER  false                       curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT RETURNTRANSFER  true               curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT TIMEOUT  60               curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT FOLLOWLOCATION  true               if  session                   curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT COOKIESESSION  true                    curl setopt  ch   CURLOPT COOKIEJAR   cookies txt                    curl setopt  ch   CURLOPT COOKIEFILE   cookies txt                              if  forceSsl                   curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT SSL VERIFYPEER  0                   curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT SSL VERIFYHOST  0      1  2                           if  empty  cookie                                curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT COOKIE   cookie       token 12345                             info   curl getinfo  ch                res   curl exec  ch                       if  curl error  ch                      this- gt error   curl error  ch                   throw new Exception  this- gt error                else                  curl close  ch                   return  res                                           function GetArray  url    http   hostname x api php    data   array  name    gt   Max    age    gt   36     forceSsl   false   cookie        session   true                url    url        http build query  data                ch   curl init                curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT URL   url               curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT HEADER  false               curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT RETURNTRANSFER  true               curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT TIMEOUT  60               curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT FOLLOWLOCATION  true               if  session                   curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT COOKIESESSION  true                    curl setopt  ch   CURLOPT COOKIEJAR   cookies txt                    curl setopt  ch   CURLOPT COOKIEFILE   cookies txt                              if  forceSsl                   curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT SSL VERIFYPEER  0                   curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT SSL VERIFYHOST  0      1  2                           if  empty  cookie                    curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT COOKIE   cookie       token 12345                             info   curl getinfo  ch                res   curl exec  ch                       if  curl error  ch                      this- gt error   curl error  ch                   throw new Exception  this- gt error                else                  curl close  ch                   return  res                                           function PostJson  url    http   hostname x api php    data   array  name    gt   Max    age    gt   36     forceSsl   false   cookie        session   true                data   json encode  data                ch   curl init  url                                                                                     curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT CUSTOMREQUEST   POST                curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT POST  1               curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT POSTFIELDS   data                                                                                 curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT RETURNTRANSFER  true               curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT TIMEOUT  60               curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT FOLLOWLOCATION  true               if  session                   curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT COOKIESESSION  true                    curl setopt  ch   CURLOPT COOKIEJAR   cookies txt                    curl setopt  ch   CURLOPT COOKIEFILE   cookies txt                              if  forceSsl                   curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT SSL VERIFYPEER  0                   curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT SSL VERIFYHOST  0      1  2                           if  empty  cookie                    curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT COOKIE   cookie       token 12345                            curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT HTTPHEADER  array                   Authorization  Bearer helo29dasd8asd6asnav7ffa                                                                          Content-Type  application json                                                                                                    Content-Length      strlen  data                                                                                                              res   curl exec  ch               if  curl error  ch                      this- gt error   curl error  ch                   throw new Exception  this- gt error                else                  curl close  ch                   return  res                                    function Post  url    http   hostname x api php    data   array  name    gt   Max    age    gt   36     files   array  ads ads0 jpg    ads ads1 jpg     forceSsl   false   cookie        session   true               foreach   files as  k   gt   v                     f   realpath  v                   if file exists  f                         fc   new CurlFile  f  mime content type  f   basename  f                          data  file    k         fc                                               ch   curl init                curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT URL   url               curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT RETURNTRANSFER  true               curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT POST  1               curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT CUSTOMREQUEST   POST                        curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT POSTFIELDS   data                   curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT SAFE UPLOAD  false           required as of PHP 5 6 0 for files                 curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT USERAGENT   Mozilla 5 0  Windows  U  Windows NT 6 1  en-GB  rv 1 9 2  Gecko 20100115 Firefox 3 6   NET CLR 3 5 30729                 curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT TIMEOUT  60               curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT FOLLOWLOCATION  true               if  session                   curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT COOKIESESSION  true                    curl setopt  ch   CURLOPT COOKIEJAR   cookies txt                    curl setopt  ch   CURLOPT COOKIEFILE   cookies txt                              if  forceSsl                   curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT SSL VERIFYPEER  0                   curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT SSL VERIFYHOST  0      1  2                           if  empty  cookie                    curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT COOKIE   cookie       token 12345                             res   curl exec  ch               if  curl error  ch                      this- gt error   curl error  ch                   throw new Exception  this- gt error                else                  curl close  ch                   return  res                                   gt    Example    lt  php      urlget    http   hostname x api php id 123 amp user bax        url    http   hostname x api php        data   array  name    gt   Max    age    gt   36         files   array  ads ads0 jpg    ads ads1 jpg          curl   new Curl        echo  curl- gt Get  urlget  true   token 12345        echo  curl- gt GetArray  url   data  true       echo  curl- gt Post  url   data   files  true       echo  curl- gt PostJson  url   data  true     gt    Php file  api php   lt  php             Cookie   session get cookie params        print r  Cookie              session set cookie params 9000        hostname x   isset   SERVER  HTTPS     true       session start           SESSION  cnt          echo  Session count        SESSION  cnt      r n       echo  json   file get contents  php   input         arr   json decode  json  true       echo   lt pre gt        if  empty  json    print r  arr         if  empty   GET    print r   GET         if  empty   POST    print r   POST         if  empty   FILES    print r   FILES            request headers     print r getallheaders         print r apache response headers            Fetch a list of headers to be sent         print r headers list       gt

User · Answer

cURL is a way you can hit a URL from your code to get a html response from it  cURL means client URL which allows you to connect with other URLs and use their responses in your code

User · Answer

Firstly let us understand the concepts of curl  libcurl and PHP cURL    curl  A command line tool for getting or sending files using URL syntax  libcurl  a library created by Daniel Stenberg  that allows you to connect and communicate to many different types of servers with many different types of protocols  libcurl currently supports the http  https  ftp  gopher  telnet  dict  file  and ldap protocols  libcurl also supports HTTPS certificates  HTTP POST  HTTP PUT  FTP uploading  this can also be done with PHP s ftp extension   HTTP form based upload  proxies  cookies  and user password authentication  PHP cURL  The module for PHP that makes it possible for PHP programs to use libcurl    How to use it   step1  Initialize a curl session use curl init     step2  Set option for CURLOPT URL  This value is the URL which we are sending the request to Append a search term  curl  using parameter  q   Set option CURLOPT RETURNTRANSFER  true will tell curl to return the string instead ofprint it out  Set option for CURLOPT HEADER  false will tell curl to ignore the header in the return value   step3  Execute the curl session using curl exec     step4  Close the curl session we have created   step5  Output the return string   Make DEMO    You will need to create two PHP files and place them into a folder that your web server can serve PHP files from  In my case I put them into  var www  for simplicity    1  helloservice php and 2  demo php  helloservice php is very simple and essentially just echoes back any data it gets    lt  php      Here is the data we will be sending to the service    some data   array       message    gt   Hello World         name    gt   Anand             curl   curl init         You can also set the URL you want to communicate with by doing this        curl   curl init  http   localhost echoservice          We POST the data   curl setopt  curl  CURLOPT POST  1        Set the url path we want to call   curl setopt  curl  CURLOPT URL   http   localhost demo php           Make it so the data coming back is put into a string   curl setopt  curl  CURLOPT RETURNTRANSFER  true        Insert the data   curl setopt  curl  CURLOPT POSTFIELDS   some data         You can also bunch the above commands into an array if you choose using  curl setopt array       Send the request    result   curl exec  curl         Get some cURL session information back    info   curl getinfo  curl       echo  content type       info  content type       lt br   gt      echo  http code       info  http code       lt br   gt          Free up the resources  curl is using   curl close  curl      echo  result    gt    2 demo php page  you can see the result    lt  php     print r   POST        content type  text html  charset UTF-8      http code  200      Array    message    gt  Hello World  name    gt  Anand     gt

User · Answer

cURL in PHP is a bridge to use command line cURL from the php language

User · Answer

Php curl function  POST GET DELETE PUT   function curl  post   array     url   token        method    POST    json   false   ssl   true        ch   curl init          curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT URL   url           curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT CUSTOMREQUEST   method       if  method     POST            curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT POST  1             if  json    true           curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT POSTFIELDS   post           curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT HTTPHEADER  array               Content-Type  application json   Authorization  Bearer    token  Content-Length      strlen  post          else          curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT POSTFIELDS  http build query  post            curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT HTTPHEADER  array  Content-Type  application x-www-form-urlencoded               curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT RETURNTRANSFER  true       curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT SSLVERSION  6       if  ssl    false           curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT SSL VERIFYHOST  false           curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT SSL VERIFYPEER  false                curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT HEADER  0             r   curl exec  ch           if  curl error  ch              statusCode   curl getinfo  ch  CURLINFO HTTP CODE            err   curl error  ch           print r  Error       err     Status       statusCode              Add error          this- gt error    err            curl close  ch       return  r

User · Answer

The cURL extension to PHP is designed to allow you to use a variety of web resources from within your PHP script

[php] What is cURL in PHP?

cURL

Sample Code

For more information, please check -

Examples related to php

Examples related to curl