/**
     * Gets file contents by URL (uses 'file_get_contents()' if 'allow_url_fopen' enabled, cUrl is not)
     * you should have cUrl installed or 'allow_url_fopen' enabled
     * @param   $url        file url string
     * @return  String      file contents
     */
    public static function getUrlContents($url)
    {
        # use cURL if 'allow_url_fopen' is disabled
        if(ini_get('allow_url_fopen'))
        {
            $result = file_get_contents($url);
        }else{
            $ch = curl_init();
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 5);
            $result = curl_exec($ch);
            curl_close($ch);
        }

        return $result;
    }