A more configurable PHP cURL request function

curl-request.php

<?php
function curl_request($url, $method = 'POST', $params = array(), $options = array()) {
    try {
        $options_defaults = array(
            'headers' => array(),
            'json_response' => true,
            'connecttimeout' => null,
            'timeout' => null,
            'returnresponsecode' => false
        );
        foreach($options_defaults as $od_key => $od_value) {
            if(!isset($options[$od_key])) {
                $options[$od_key] = $options_defaults[$od_key];
            }
        }

        $ch = curl_init();

        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, $method);
        if(!empty($options['headers'])) {
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $options['headers']);
        }
        if(!empty($params)) {
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $params);
        }
        if(!empty($options['connecttimeout'])) {
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $options['connecttimeout']);
        }
        if(!empty($options['timeout'])) {
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, $options['timeout']);
        }

        $output = curl_exec($ch);
        $httpcode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
        curl_close($ch);

        if(!empty($options['returnresponsecode'])) {
            $output_new = new stdClass();
            $output_new->httpcode = $httpcode;
            $output_new->output = true === $options['json_response'] ? json_decode($output) : $output;
            return $output_new;
        } else {
            return true === $options['json_response'] ? json_decode($output) : $output;
        }
    } catch(Exception $e) {
        if(true === $options['json_response'])
            return json_decode('{"error":true,"message":"'.$e->getMessage().'"}');
        else
            throw new Exception($e->getMessage());
    }
}