What are the best practices for handling data transfer in PHP scripts between different environments?

When transferring data between different environments in PHP scripts, it is important to ensure that the data is securely transmitted and properly sanitized to prevent any security vulnerabilities. One best practice is to use HTTPS for secure data transfer. Additionally, always validate and sanitize user input to prevent SQL injection and other attacks.

// Example of securely transferring data between environments using HTTPS
$url = 'https://example.com/api';
$data = ['key1' => 'value1', 'key2' => 'value2'];

$options = [
    'http' => [
        'header'  => "Content-type: application/json\r\n",
        'method'  => 'POST',
        'content' => json_encode($data),
    ],
];

$context  = stream_context_create($options);
$response = file_get_contents($url, false, $context);

if ($response === false) {
    // Handle error
} else {
    // Process response
}