How to rewrite code from file_get_contents to CURL?

Question

PHP

Hello.
I am developing for myself one thing in php, which uses api vk. I didn’t want to go deep into the theory, so I just took a ready-made example and remade it to fit my needs. Here's what happened:

function get_group_info($group_vkid){
  $url = 'https://api.vk.com/method/groups.getById';
  $params = array(
    'group_id' => $group_vkid,
    'fields' => 'members_count',
    'access_token' => '6222b2f6a4afc0e0dd327db7bd0d84cd91726acffee9ae8e338c09997d3a184879e02ae632764156e3edf',
    'v' => '5.59'
  );

  $result = file_get_contents($url, false, stream_context_create(array(
    'http' => array(
      'method'  => 'POST',
      'header'  => 'Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
      'content' => http_build_query($params)
    )
  )));
  $result = json_decode($result, 1);
  return $result[response][0];
}

The feature worked fine on the local server. When transferred to the "real" error got out:
file_get_contents( https://api.vk.com/method/groups.getById): failed to open stream: Connection refused
I read on the forums. As I understand it, the servers forbid this function and I need to rewrite everything on CURL. Again, I did not want to delve into the theory and was looking for something ready. I more or less understood how to use CURL, but I didn’t understand how to transfer the context with it. Please explain how I can rewrite this code in CURL, if possible. And if not possible, just advise what to do.
Thank you in advance)

Answer 1

rather closed outgoing connections. Curl won't work there.

Answer 2

lornajane.net/posts/2011/posting-json-data-with-ph...