Create a new lead using php 5.3 and Base API v2

basecrm_create_lead.php

<?php

function createLead($accessToken, array $lead)
{
  $method = 'post';
  $absUrl = 'https://api.getbase.com/v2/leads';
  $headers = array(
    'User-Agent: BaseCRM/PHP Sample',
    'Authorization: Bearer ' . $accessToken,
    'Accept: application/json',
    'Content-Type: application/json',
  );

  $envelope = array('data' => $lead);
  $payload = json_encode($envelope);

  $curl = curl_init();
  curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, $absUrl);
  curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
  curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
  curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, $method);
  curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $payload);
  $resp = curl_exec($curl);

  if ($resp === false)
  {
    $errno = curl_errno($curl);
    $error_message = curl_error($curl);
    curl_close($curl);

    throw new Exception($error_message);
  }

  $code = curl_getinfo($curl, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
  curl_close($curl);

  $newLead = null;
  if ($resp != null && $code == 200)
  {
    try 
    {
      $response = json_decode($resp, true);
    }
    catch (Exception $e)
    {
      $msg = "Unknown error occurred. The response should be a json response. "
        . "HTTP response code={$code}. "
        . "HTTP response body={$rawResponse}.";
      throw new Exception($msg);
    }

    $newLead = $response['data'];
  }    

  return $newLead;
}


function getAccessToken()
{
  $token = getenv("BASECRM_ACCESS_TOKEN");
  if (!$token) throw new Exception('"BASECRM_ACCESS_TOKEN" environment variable has not been found.');
  return $token;
}

$lead = array(
  'first_name' => 'John',
  'last_name' => 'Doe'
);
print_r(createLead(getAccessToken(), $lead));