How to reuse a cURL handle for multiple requests in PHP?

To reuse a cURL handle for multiple requests in PHP, you can follow these steps:

  1. Initialize the cURL handle using curl_init(). This function returns a cURL handle, which you can store in a variable for later use.
$ch = curl_init();
  1. Set the desired options for the cURL handle using curl_setopt(). This includes specifying the URL, setting any required headers or options, and configuring any necessary authentication or SSL settings.
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'http://example.com/api'); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
  1. Execute the request using curl_exec(). This will perform the request and return the response.
$response = curl_exec($ch);
  1. Process the response and handle any errors or exceptions, if necessary.

  2. If you want to make another request with the same cURL handle, you can modify the options as needed and repeat steps 3-4.

  3. After you have finished making all the requests with the cURL handle, remember to clean up by closing the cURL handle using curl_close(). This will release any allocated resources.

curl_close($ch);

By reusing the same cURL handle for multiple requests, you can benefit from persistent connections and save on the overhead of creating a new handle for each request.