using Curl to post request to external api.

curlreqres.php

<?php
	// here is where you are going to post curl.
	$test_url = "www.example.com";
	// this is the content to be post.
	$request_xml_content = "<request>this is a sample xml request</request>";
	
	// init Curl call.
	$ch = curl_init();
	
	// set options for Curl.
	// don't pass any header params.
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
	// do return what response.
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
	// disable SSL verification.
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0); 
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0); 
	// url to pass this curl POST.
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $test_url);
	// we are POSTing what we request.
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
	// set request variable name as 'request'.
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "request=".$request_xml_content);
	
	if(curl_exec($ch) === false)
	{
	    return 'Curl error: ' . curl_error($ch);
	}
	
	// set time limit to 60 seconds to extend execute time.
	$seconds = 60;
	set_time_limit ($seconds);
	
	// execute Curl.
	$content=curl_exec($ch);
	
	// return response.
	return $content;