How to make an HTTP POST request with cURL in PHP?

To make an HTTP POST request with cURL in PHP, you can use the following code:

// Create a new cURL resource
$ch = curl_init();

// Set the URL and other options
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "http://example.com/api");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);

// Set the POST data
$postData = array(
    'param1' => 'value1',
    'param2' => 'value2'
);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $postData);

// Execute the request
$response = curl_exec($ch);

// Close cURL resource
curl_close($ch);

// Handle the response
if ($response === false) {
    // Request failed
    echo curl_error($ch);
} else {
    // Request succeeded
    echo $response;
}

In this code, you first create a new cURL resource using curl_init(). Then, you set the URL you want to send the request to using curl_setopt(). Additionally, you set the CURLOPT_POST option to true to indicate that it's a POST request.

Next, you set the POST data using curl_setopt(). The data can be passed as an array, which will be serialized by cURL.

After setting all the options, you execute the request with curl_exec(), which will send the request and return the response. Finally, you close the cURL resource with curl_close().

You can then handle the response as needed. If the request fails, you can use curl_error() to get the error message. Otherwise, you can process the response as necessary.