request.php

<?php

/*
 * Makes an HTTP request via GET or POST, and can download a file
 * @returns - Returns the response of the request
 * @param $url - The URL to request, including any GET parameters
 * @param $params - An array of POST values to send
 * @param $filename - If provided, the response will be saved to the 
 *    specified filename
 */
function request($url, $params = array(), $filename = ""){
	$ch = curl_init();
	$curlOpts = array(
		CURLOPT_URL=>$url,
		// Set Useragent
		CURLOPT_USERAGENT=>
		'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; rv:29.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/29.0',
		// Don't validate SSL 
		// This is to prevent possible errors with self-signed certs
		CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER=>false,
		CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST=>false,
		CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER=>true,
		CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION=>true
	);
	if(!empty($filename)){
		// If $filename exists, save content to file
		$file2 = fopen($filename, 'w+')
				or die("Error[" . __FILE__ . ":" . __LINE__ . "] 
			   Could not open file: $filename");
		$curlOpts[CURLOPT_FILE] = $file2;
	}
	if(!empty($params)){
		// If POST values are given, send that shit too
		$curlOpts[CURLOPT_POST] = true;
		$curlOpts[CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS] = $params;
	}
	curl_setopt_array($ch, $curlOpts);
	$answer = curl_exec($ch);
	// If there was an error, show it
	if(curl_error($ch)) die(curl_error($ch));
	if(!empty($filename)) fclose($file2);
	curl_close($ch);
	return $answer;
}