Read entire contents of a URL into one string. Allows you to pass parameters or raw data. Supports GET/POST. More convenient and feature-rich compared to file_get_contents if you're using it on URLs!

url_get_contents.php

<?php

/**
 * Read entire contents of given URL as a string. Optionally, get headers as well in an easily accessible array.
 * @param string $url URL to fetch data from
 * @param mixed $params Parameters to the URL, typically an array. In case of POST, can be a string
 * @param string $method HTTP method - can be 'GET' (default) or 'POST'
 * @param bool $include_headers Should response headers be included?
 * @return mixed Contents of the webpage as a string. Returns <i>false</i> in case of failure. If parameter <b>$include_headers</b> is <i>true</i>, returns an <i>array</i> containing response code, response headers and response body.
 */
function url_get_contents($url, $params = null, $method = 'GET', $include_headers = false) {
	$contents = false;
	if (!in_array($method, array('GET', 'POST'))) {
		error_log(__FUNCTION__ . ": Unknown method '$method'");
		return false;
	}
	if ($method == 'GET') {
		if (is_array($params) && count($params) > 0) {
			if ($params === array_values($params)) {
				error_log(__FUNCTION__ . ": Numerical array recieved for argument '\$params' (assoc array expected)");
				return false;
			}
			else {
				$url .= '?' . http_build_query($params);
			}
		}
		elseif (!is_null($params)) {
			error_log(__FUNCTION__ . ": If you're making a GET request, argument \$params must be null or assoc array.");
			return false;
		}
	}
	$ch = curl_init($url);
	if ($ch !== false) {
		curl_setopt_array($ch, array(
			CURLOPT_HEADER => (bool) $include_headers,
			CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
		));
		if ($method == 'POST') {
			curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
			if (is_string($params) || is_array($params)) {
				curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $params);
			}
			else {
				error_log(__FUNCTION__ . ": Argument \$params should be an array of parameters or (if you want to send raw data) a string");
				return false;
			}
		}
		$rawcontents = curl_exec($ch);
		if ($include_headers === true) {
			$contents = array();
			$contents['code'] = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
			$header_size = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HEADER_SIZE);
			$headers_str = substr($rawcontents, 0, $header_size);
			$rawheaders = explode("\n", $headers_str);
			$contents['headers'] = array();
			for ($i = 1; $i < count($rawheaders) - 2; $i++) {
				list($header_name, $header_value) = explode(':', $rawheaders[$i], 2);
				$header_name_lowercase = strtolower($header_name);
				if (isset($contents['headers'][$header_name_lowercase])) {
					if (is_array($contents['headers'][$header_name_lowercase])) {
						$contents['headers'][$header_name_lowercase][] = trim($header_value);
					}
					else {
						$prev_header_value = $contents['headers'][$header_name_lowercase];
						$contents['headers'][$header_name_lowercase] = array($prev_header_value, trim($header_value));
					}
				}
				else {
					$contents['headers'][$header_name_lowercase] = trim($header_value);
				}
			}
			$contents['body'] = substr($rawcontents, $header_size);
			if ($contents['body'] === false) {
				$contents['body'] = "";
			}
		}
		else {
			$contents = $rawcontents;
		}
		curl_close($ch);
	}
	return $contents;
}