[PHP] A simple functions that can be used in place of file_get_contents that's powered by cURL.

00-url-get-contents.php

<?php

/**
 * Uses cURL rather than file_get_contents to make a request to the specified URL.
 *
 * @param    string    $url       The URL to which we're making the request.
 * @return   string    $output    The result of the request.
 */
function url_get_contents ( $url ) {

    if ( ! function_exists( 'curl_init' ) ) {
        die( 'The cURL library is not installed.' );
    }

    $ch = curl_init();

    curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url );
    curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true );

    $output = curl_exec( $ch );

    curl_close( $ch );

    return $output;

}