simplifying curl

	public $base_url = "https://spaceangelsnetwork.api-us1.com";
    public $secure_token;
    public $debug = false;

    function __construct($secure_token = NULL) {
        $this->secure_token = config('services.active_campaign.key');
        if($secure_token) $this->secure_token = $secure_token;
    }


    // Run HTTP Requests
    function httpRequest($url, $body) {
        $method = "POST";

        $curl = curl_init();
        curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
        curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
        curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);

        if ($body) {
            curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query($body));
            curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, $method);
            curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array("Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded"));   
        }

        $data = curl_exec($curl);
        if ($this->debug) {
            echo "In httpRequest: Recieved DATA\n===========\n" . $data . "\n===========\n";
        }
        if(curl_error($curl))
        {
            \Log::info('curl error:' . curl_error($curl));
            return "AC Fail";

        }
        curl_close($curl);
        return $data;
    }


    //
    //
    // Create Contact 
    function addUserToAC($user){
        $addUrl = $this->base_url . "/admin/api.php?api_action=contact_add";

        $name = explode(" ", $user['name']);

        $body = array(
            'api_action'    => 'contact_add',
            'api_key'       => $this->secure_token,
            'api_output'    => 'json',
            'email'         => $user['email'],
            'first_name'    => $name[0]
        );
        if(array_key_exists(1, $name)){ 
            $body['last_name'] = $name[1];
        } 

        if(array_key_exists('phone', $user)){
            $body['phone'] = $user['phone'];
        }

        if (array_key_exists('referred_by', $user) && array_key_exists('referred_method', $user)) {
            if ($user['referred_by'] == "Member") {
            $body['field[%REFERRER%,0]'] = $user['referred_method'];
            }
        }

        $response = $this->httpRequest($addUrl, $body);

        $jsonResponse = json_decode($response, true); 
        return $jsonResponse;
    }