Creating a Minimal PHP/CURL Session

In some regards, a PHP/CURL session is similar to a PHP file I/O session. Both create a session (or file handle) to reference an external file. And in both cases, when the file transfer is complete, the session is closed. However, PHP/CURL differs from standard file I/O because it requires a series of options that define the nature of the file transfer set before the exchange takes place. These options are set individually, and the sequence in which they are defined is of no importance. As a quick example, Example A-1 shows the minimal options required to create a PHP/CURL session that will put a downloaded file into a variable.

<?
# Open a PHP/CURL session
$s = curl_init();

# Configure the PHP/CURL command
curl_setopt($s, CURLOPT_URL, "http://www.schrenk.com");  // Define target site
curl_setopt($s, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);           // Return in string

# Execute the PHP/CURL command (send contents of target web page to string)
$downloaded_page = curl_exec($s);

# Close PHP/CURL session
curl_close($s);
?>