Http request help for php

http_requests_helper.php

<?php
function httpRequest($url)
{
	// make request
	$ch = curl_init();
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url); 
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); 
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST,TRUE);
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array("Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8",));
	
	$output =  curl_exec($ch);
	
	// handle error; error output
	if(curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE) !== 200) {

	  var_dump($output);
	}
	
	curl_close($ch);
	return $output;
	
}

/** 
* Send a GET requst using cURL 
* @param string $url to request 
* @param array $get values to send 
* @param array $options for cURL 
* @return string 
*/ 
function curl_get($url, array $get = NULL, array $options = array()) 
{    
    $defaults = array( 
        CURLOPT_URL => $url. (strpos($url, '?') === FALSE ? '?' : ''). http_build_query($get), 
        CURLOPT_HEADER => 0, 
        CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => TRUE, 
        CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 4 
    ); 
    
    $ch = curl_init(); 
    curl_setopt_array($ch, ($options + $defaults)); 
    if( ! $result = curl_exec($ch)) 
    { 
        trigger_error(curl_error($ch)); 
    } 
    curl_close($ch); 
    return $result; 
}

/** 
* Send a POST requst using cURL 
* @param string $url to request 
* @param array $post values to send 
* @param array $options for cURL 
* @return string 
*/ 
function curl_post($url, array $post = NULL, array $options = array()) 
{ 
    $defaults = array( 
        CURLOPT_POST => 1, 
        CURLOPT_HEADER => 0, 
        CURLOPT_URL => $url, 
        CURLOPT_FRESH_CONNECT => 1, 
        CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => 1, 
        CURLOPT_FORBID_REUSE => 1, 
        CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 4, 
        CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => http_build_query($post) 
    ); 

    $ch = curl_init(); 
    curl_setopt_array($ch, ($options + $defaults)); 
    if( ! $result = curl_exec($ch)) 
    { 
        trigger_error(curl_error($ch)); 
    } 
    curl_close($ch); 
    return $result; 
}