file_get_contents() Function: This PHP function is used to retrieve the contents of a file. The contents can be stored as a string variable. Alternatively, it also simulates HTTP transactions, involving requests via GET method and responses using POST method respectively. Primarily, it is best-suited for simple HTTP manipulations and to get single-line JSON responses.
Example:
PHP
<?php // Reading contents from the // neveropen homepage $homepage = file_get_contents(echo $homepage; ?> |
Output: It will redirect to neveropen home page.
cURL: It is a third party library that simulates HTTP requests and responses in a much more efficient way. It can handle asynchronous HTTP requests and complex communications like callback functions or break point continual transferring. It is also suitable for carrying out cross-domain based FTP request. Also, it can be used in different applications like proxy setup and Website Scraping etc.
Example:
PHP
<?php // From URL to get webpage contents // Initialize a CURL session. $ch = curl_init(); // Return Page contents. curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); // Grab URL and pass it to the variable curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url); $result = curl_exec($ch); echo $result; ?> |
Output: It will redirect to neveropen home page.
| file_get_contents() Method | cURL |
|---|---|
| Handles simple HTTP communications. | Handles complex HTTP communications. |
| Supports simple HTTP GET and HTTP POST operations. | Supports HTTP PUT, certificates in addition to GET and POST requests. |
| Doesn’t support caching, cookies, etc. | Supports caching, cookies progress reporting etc. |
| It uses HTTP and HTTPS protocols for communications. | It uses HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS protocols. |
| It can be used to read the file content. | It can be used to read, edit, update, delete files from server. |
| Slow in operation. | Secure and fast in operation. |
| Easy to understand. | Complex to understand. |
