<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
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 <reference id="ref.curl">
  <title>CURL, Client URL Library Functions</title>
  <titleabbrev>CURL</titleabbrev>

  <partintro>
   <section id="curl.intro">
    &reftitle.intro;
    <para>
     PHP supports libcurl, a library created by Daniel Stenberg, that
     allows you to connect and communicate to many different types of
     servers with many different types of protocols. libcurl currently
     supports the http, https, ftp, gopher, telnet, dict, file, and
     ldap protocols. libcurl also supports HTTPS certificates, HTTP
     POST, HTTP PUT, FTP uploading (this can also be done with PHP's
     ftp extension), HTTP form based upload, proxies, cookies, and
     user+password authentication.
    </para>
    <para>
     These functions have been added in PHP 4.0.2.
    </para>
   </section>
   
   <section id="curl.requirements">
    &reftitle.required;
    <para>
     In order to use PHP's cURL functions you need to install the <ulink
     url="&url.curl;">libcurl</ulink> package. PHP requires that you use
     libcurl 7.0.2-beta or higher. In PHP 4.2.3, you will need 
     libcurl version 7.9.0 or higher.  From PHP 4.3.0, you will need a libcurl
     version that's 7.9.8 or higher.  PHP 5.0.0 requires
     a libcurl version 7.10.5 or greater.
    </para>
   </section>
   
   &reference.curl.configure;
   
   <section id="curl.resources">
    &reftitle.resources;
    <para>
     This extension defines two resource types: a cURL handle and a cURL multi
     handle.
    </para>
   </section>
   
   <section>
    &reftitle.constants;
    <para>
     See also the cURL <link linkend="curl.constants">Predefined Constants</link>
    </para>
   </section>
   
   <section id="curl.examples">
    &reftitle.examples;
    <para>
     Once you've compiled PHP with cURL support, you can begin using
     the cURL functions. The basic idea behind the cURL functions is
     that you initialize a cURL session using the
     <function>curl_init</function>, then you can set all your
     options for the transfer via the <function>curl_setopt</function>,
     then you can execute the session with the 
     <function>curl_exec</function> and then you finish off 
     your session using the <function>curl_close</function>. 
     Here is an example that uses the cURL functions to fetch the 
     example.com homepage into a file:
     <example>
      <title>Using PHP's cURL module to fetch the example.com homepage</title>
      <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php

$ch = curl_init("http://www.example.com/");
$fp = fopen("example_homepage.txt", "w");

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);

curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
fclose($fp);
?>
]]>
      </programlisting>
     </example>
    </para>
   </section>

  </partintro>

  &reference.curl.constants;

  &reference.curl.functions;

 </reference>

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