<?php
function call($vars){
    //* generic Curl method to call the API server
    //* gets cookie from client, sets it as a temp file for the curl cookie jar
    //* makes request on behalf of the remote client and then saves the cookie back to the client

    //open temp file
    $tmpFileName = 'cookie_'.(microtime(true)*100).rand(100,999);
    $tmpFileHandle = fopen($this->tempDir.$tmpFileName, 'w') or die("can't open cookie cache file");
    fwrite($tmpFileHandle, base64_decode($_COOKIE['remoteID']));
    fclose($tmpFileHandle);

    //build var string
    $first = true;
    foreach($vars as $varName => $var){
      if($first){
        $getVars .= "?";
      }else{
        $getVars .= '&';
      }
      $getVars .= urlencode($varName).'='.urlencode($var);
      $first = false;
    }

    //call remote server
    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $this->apiServerURL."/".$this->params['section']."/".$this->params['method'].$getVars);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, $this->tempDir.$tmpFileName);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, $this->tempDir.$tmpFileName);
    $output = json_decode(curl_exec($ch));
    $info = curl_getinfo($ch);
    curl_close($ch);
    unset($ch); // run in to a problem with this a few times

    //set cookie on client
    $tmpFileHandle = fopen($this->tempDir.$tmpFileName, 'rb') or die("can't open cookie cache file");
    $_COOKIE['remoteID'] = base64_encode(fread($tmpFileHandle, filesize($this->tempDir.$tmpFileName)));
    fclose($tmpFileHandle);

    return $output;
  }