Are there any best practices for managing network connections in PHP applications?

When managing network connections in PHP applications, it is important to properly handle opening and closing connections to prevent memory leaks and ensure efficient resource usage. One best practice is to always close connections when they are no longer needed to free up resources.

// Open a network connection
$connection = fopen('http://www.example.com', 'r');

// Use the connection

// Close the connection when done
fclose($connection);