In what scenarios would it be advisable to use fopen, fsockopen, or cURL instead of file_get_contents in PHP?

When dealing with remote resources or APIs that require more control over the request, such as setting headers, handling redirects, or making POST requests, it is advisable to use fopen, fsockopen, or cURL instead of file_get_contents in PHP.

// Using cURL to make a GET request to a remote API
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://api.example.com/data');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

// Process the response
if ($response) {
    // Handle the API response
} else {
    // Handle the error
}