How can PHP developers ensure secure and efficient data transmission when using cURL for external requests?

To ensure secure and efficient data transmission when using cURL for external requests, PHP developers should set appropriate options for SSL verification, use HTTPS protocol, and handle errors properly. Additionally, they can optimize the data transfer by setting headers and using compression if applicable.

$url = 'https://example.com/api';
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 2);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CAINFO, '/path/to/ca-bundle.crt');
$response = curl_exec($ch);

if($response === false) {
    echo 'cURL error: ' . curl_error($ch);
}

curl_close($ch);