Save image from url with curl PHP

Option #1

Instead of picking the binary/raw data into a variable and then writing, you can use CURLOPT_FILE option to directly show a file to the curl for the downloading.

Here is the function:

// takes URL of image and Path for the image as parameter
function download_image1($image_url, $image_file){
    $fp = fopen ($image_file, 'w+');              // open file handle

    $ch = curl_init($image_url);
    // curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false); // enable if you want
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp);          // output to file
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 1000);      // some large value to allow curl to run for a long time
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, 'Mozilla/5.0');
    // curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, true);   // Enable this line to see debug prints
    curl_exec($ch);

    curl_close($ch);                              // closing curl handle
    fclose($fp);                                  // closing file handle
}

And here is how you should call it:

// test the download function
download_image1("http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/10773ae6687b55736e171c038b4228d2", "local_image1.jpg");

Option #2

Now, If you want to download a very large file, that case above function may not become handy. You can use the below function this time for handling a big file. Also, you can print progress(in % or in any other format) if you want. Below function is implemented using a callback function that writes a chunk of data in to the file in to the progress of downloading.

// takes URL of image and Path for the image as parameter
function download_image2($image_url){
    $ch = curl_init($image_url);
    // curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false); // enable if you want
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 1000);      // some large value to allow curl to run for a long time
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, 'Mozilla/5.0');
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION, "curl_callback");
    // curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, true);   // Enable this line to see debug prints
    curl_exec($ch);

    curl_close($ch);                              // closing curl handle
}

/** callback function for curl */
function curl_callback($ch, $bytes){
    global $fp;
    $len = fwrite($fp, $bytes);
    // if you want, you can use any progress printing here
    return $len;
}

And here is how to call this function:

// test the download function
$image_file = "local_image2.jpg";
$fp = fopen ($image_file, 'w+');              // open file handle
download_image2("http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/10773ae6687b55736e171c038b4228d2");
fclose($fp);                                  // closing file handle

try this:

function grab_image($url,$saveto){
    $ch = curl_init ($url);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_BINARYTRANSFER,1);
    $raw=curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close ($ch);
    if(file_exists($saveto)){
        unlink($saveto);
    }
    $fp = fopen($saveto,'x');
    fwrite($fp, $raw);
    fclose($fp);
}

and ensure that in php.ini allow_url_fopen is enable