curl_get_contents.php

<?php
function curl_get_contents($url, $json = false, $show_error = false) {
    if (!function_exists('curl_init')) { return file_get_contents($url); } // fallback
    $ch = curl_init();
    $options = array(
        CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER => false,
        CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
        CURLOPT_URL            => $url,
        CURLOPT_HEADER         => false,
    );
    curl_setopt_array($ch, $options);
    $response = curl_exec($ch);
    if ($response === false && $show_error) {
        echo 'ERROR: ' . curl_error($ch)."\n";
    }
    curl_close($ch);
    if ($json) {
        return json_decode($response, true);
    }
    return $response;
}