I have been asked this question multiple times from my colleagues and my fellow-mates . What is curl? How to use curl ? and When to use Curl ? So in the following blog I am going to answer all your questions .
In PHP if you want to access outside URL from your website there are four ways to do so
Using the fopen() function
Using the fsockopen() function
Using the cURL library
Using the Http_Request class
All these function have their own specific use but cURL is the most recommended one.
In order to run cURL in your website or in php you need to install and enable it . If it is already installed you can skip to part for basic use of curl .