Sending HTTP Requests

file_get_contents can fetch a URL directly for simple cases; cURL (or the Guzzle package, built on it) gives full control over headers, methods, and error handling for real applications.

$ch = curl_init('https://api.example.com/users');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
$statusCode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
curl_close($ch);

$data = json_decode($response, true);

In a Composer-based project, guzzlehttp/guzzle wraps this in a much friendlier API ($client->get($url)) — worth reaching for once a project has real HTTP needs beyond a single quick request.