/** * HTTP API: WP_Http_Curl class * * @package WordPress * @subpackage HTTP * @since 4.4.0 */ /** * Core class used to integrate Curl as an HTTP transport. * * HTTP request method uses Curl extension to retrieve the url. * * Requires the Curl extension to be installed. * * @since 2.7.0 * @deprecated 6.4.0 Use WP_Http * @see WP_Http */ #[AllowDynamicProperties] class WP_Http_Curl { /** * Temporary header storage for during requests. * * @since 3.2.0 * @var string */ private $headers = ''; /** * Temporary body storage for during requests. * * @since 3.6.0 * @var string */ private $body = ''; /** * The maximum amount of data to receive from the remote server. * * @since 3.6.0 * @var int|false */ private $max_body_length = false; /** * The file resource used for streaming to file. * * @since 3.6.0 * @var resource|false */ private $stream_handle = false; /** * The total bytes written in the current request. * * @since 4.1.0 * @var int */ private $bytes_written_total = 0; /** * Send a HTTP request to a URI using cURL extension. * * @since 2.7.0 * * @param string $url The request URL. * @param string|array $args Optional. Override the defaults. * @return array|WP_Error Array containing 'headers', 'body', 'response', 'cookies', 'filename'. A WP_Error instance upon error */ public function request( $url, $args = array() ) { $defaults = array( 'method' => 'GET', 'timeout' => 5, 'redirection' => 5, 'httpversion' => '1.0', 'blocking' => true, 'headers' => array(), 'body' => null, 'cookies' => array(), 'decompress' => false, 'stream' => false, 'filename' => null, ); $parsed_args = wp_parse_args( $args, $defaults ); if ( isset( $parsed_args['headers']['User-Agent'] ) ) { $parsed_args['user-agent'] = $parsed_args['headers']['User-Agent']; unset( $parsed_args['headers']['User-Agent'] ); } elseif ( isset( $parsed_args['headers']['user-agent'] ) ) { $parsed_args['user-agent'] = $parsed_args['headers']['user-agent']; unset( $parsed_args['headers']['user-agent'] ); } // Construct Cookie: header if any cookies are set. WP_Http::buildCookieHeader( $parsed_args ); $handle = curl_init(); // cURL offers really easy proxy support. $proxy = new WP_HTTP_Proxy(); if ( $proxy->is_enabled() && $proxy->send_through_proxy( $url ) ) { curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE, CURLPROXY_HTTP ); curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_PROXY, $proxy->host() ); curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_PROXYPORT, $proxy->port() ); if ( $proxy->use_authentication() ) { curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_PROXYAUTH, CURLAUTH_ANY ); curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_PROXYUSERPWD, $proxy->authentication() ); } } $is_local = isset( $parsed_args['local'] ) && $parsed_args['local']; $ssl_verify = isset( $parsed_args['sslverify'] ) && $parsed_args['sslverify']; if ( $is_local ) { /** This filter is documented in wp-includes/class-wp-http-streams.php */ $ssl_verify = apply_filters( 'https_local_ssl_verify', $ssl_verify, $url ); } elseif ( ! $is_local ) { /** This filter is documented in wp-includes/class-wp-http.php */ $ssl_verify = apply_filters( 'https_ssl_verify', $ssl_verify, $url ); } /* * CURLOPT_TIMEOUT and CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT expect integers. Have to use ceil since. * a value of 0 will allow an unlimited timeout. */ $timeout = (int) ceil( $parsed_args['timeout'] ); curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $timeout ); curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, $timeout ); curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_URL, $url ); curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true ); curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, ( true === $ssl_verify ) ? 2 : false ); curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, $ssl_verify ); if ( $ssl_verify ) { curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_CAINFO, $parsed_args['sslcertificates'] ); } curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, $parsed_args['user-agent'] ); /* * The option doesn't work with safe mode or when open_basedir is set, and there's * a bug #17490 with redirected POST requests, so handle redirections outside Curl. */ curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, false ); curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_PROTOCOLS, CURLPROTO_HTTP | CURLPROTO_HTTPS ); switch ( $parsed_args['method'] ) { case 'HEAD': curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_NOBODY, true ); break; case 'POST': curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_POST, true ); curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $parsed_args['body'] ); break; case 'PUT': curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, 'PUT' ); curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $parsed_args['body'] ); break; default: curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, $parsed_args['method'] ); if ( ! is_null( $parsed_args['body'] ) ) { curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $parsed_args['body'] ); } break; } if ( true === $parsed_args['blocking'] ) { curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_HEADERFUNCTION, array( $this, 'stream_headers' ) ); curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION, array( $this, 'stream_body' ) ); } curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_HEADER, false ); if ( isset( $parsed_args['limit_response_size'] ) ) { $this->max_body_length = (int) $parsed_args['limit_response_size']; } else { $this->max_body_length = false; } // If streaming to a file open a file handle, and setup our curl streaming handler. if ( $parsed_args['stream'] ) { if ( ! WP_DEBUG ) { $this->stream_handle = @fopen( $parsed_args['filename'], 'w+' ); } else { $this->stream_handle = fopen( $parsed_args['filename'], 'w+' ); } if ( ! $this->stream_handle ) { return new WP_Error( 'http_request_failed', sprintf( /* translators: 1: fopen(), 2: File name. */ __( 'Could not open handle for %1$s to %2$s.' ), 'fopen()', $parsed_args['filename'] ) ); } } else { $this->stream_handle = false; } if ( ! empty( $parsed_args['headers'] ) ) { // cURL expects full header strings in each element. $headers = array(); foreach ( $parsed_args['headers'] as $name => $value ) { $headers[] = "{$name}: $value"; } curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers ); } if ( '1.0' === $parsed_args['httpversion'] ) { curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION, CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_0 ); } else { curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION, CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1 ); } /** * Fires before the cURL request is executed. * * Cookies are not currently handled by the HTTP API. This action allows * plugins to handle cookies themselves. * * @since 2.8.0 * * @param resource $handle The cURL handle returned by curl_init() (passed by reference). * @param array $parsed_args The HTTP request arguments. * @param string $url The request URL. */ do_action_ref_array( 'http_api_curl', array( &$handle, $parsed_args, $url ) ); // We don't need to return the body, so don't. Just execute request and return. if ( ! $parsed_args['blocking'] ) { curl_exec( $handle ); $curl_error = curl_error( $handle ); if ( $curl_error ) { if ( PHP_VERSION_ID < 80000 ) { // curl_close() has no effect as of PHP 8.0. curl_close( $handle ); } return new WP_Error( 'http_request_failed', $curl_error ); } if ( in_array( curl_getinfo( $handle, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE ), array( 301, 302 ), true ) ) { if ( PHP_VERSION_ID < 80000 ) { // curl_close() has no effect as of PHP 8.0. curl_close( $handle ); } return new WP_Error( 'http_request_failed', __( 'Too many redirects.' ) ); } if ( PHP_VERSION_ID < 80000 ) { // curl_close() has no effect as of PHP 8.0. curl_close( $handle ); } return array( 'headers' => array(), 'body' => '', 'response' => array( 'code' => false, 'message' => false, ), 'cookies' => array(), ); } curl_exec( $handle ); $processed_headers = WP_Http::processHeaders( $this->headers, $url ); $body = $this->body; $bytes_written_total = $this->bytes_written_total; $this->headers = ''; $this->body = ''; $this->bytes_written_total = 0; $curl_error = curl_errno( $handle ); // If an error occurred, or, no response. if ( $curl_error || ( 0 === strlen( $body ) && empty( $processed_headers['headers'] ) ) ) { if ( CURLE_WRITE_ERROR /* 23 */ === $curl_error ) { if ( ! $this->max_body_length || $this->max_body_length !== $bytes_written_total ) { if ( $parsed_args['stream'] ) { if ( PHP_VERSION_ID < 80000 ) { // curl_close() has no effect as of PHP 8.0. curl_close( $handle ); } fclose( $this->stream_handle ); return new WP_Error( 'http_request_failed', __( 'Failed to write request to temporary file.' ) ); } else { if ( PHP_VERSION_ID < 80000 ) { // curl_close() has no effect as of PHP 8.0. curl_close( $handle ); } return new WP_Error( 'http_request_failed', curl_error( $handle ) ); } } } else { $curl_error = curl_error( $handle ); if ( $curl_error ) { if ( PHP_VERSION_ID < 80000 ) { // curl_close() has no effect as of PHP 8.0. curl_close( $handle ); } return new WP_Error( 'http_request_failed', $curl_error ); } } if ( in_array( curl_getinfo( $handle, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE ), array( 301, 302 ), true ) ) { if ( PHP_VERSION_ID < 80000 ) { // curl_close() has no effect as of PHP 8.0. curl_close( $handle ); } return new WP_Error( 'http_request_failed', __( 'Too many redirects.' ) ); } } if ( PHP_VERSION_ID < 80000 ) { // curl_close() has no effect as of PHP 8.0. curl_close( $handle ); } if ( $parsed_args['stream'] ) { fclose( $this->stream_handle ); } $response = array( 'headers' => $processed_headers['headers'], 'body' => null, 'response' => $processed_headers['response'], 'cookies' => $processed_headers['cookies'], 'filename' => $parsed_args['filename'], ); // Handle redirects. $redirect_response = WP_Http::handle_redirects( $url, $parsed_args, $response ); if ( false !== $redirect_response ) { return $redirect_response; } if ( true === $parsed_args['decompress'] && true === WP_Http_Encoding::should_decode( $processed_headers['headers'] ) ) { $body = WP_Http_Encoding::decompress( $body ); } $response['body'] = $body; return $response; } /** * Grabs the headers of the cURL request. * * Each header is sent individually to this callback, and is appended to the `$header` property * for temporary storage. * * @since 3.2.0 * * @param resource $handle cURL handle. * @param string $headers cURL request headers. * @return int Length of the request headers. */ private function stream_headers( $handle, $headers ) { $this->headers .= $headers; return strlen( $headers ); } /** * Grabs the body of the cURL request. * * The contents of the document are passed in chunks, and are appended to the `$body` * property for temporary storage. Returning a length shorter than the length of * `$data` passed in will cause cURL to abort the request with `CURLE_WRITE_ERROR`. * * @since 3.6.0 * * @param resource $handle cURL handle. * @param string $data cURL request body. * @return int Total bytes of data written. */ private function stream_body( $handle, $data ) { $data_length = strlen( $data ); if ( $this->max_body_length && ( $this->bytes_written_total + $data_length ) > $this->max_body_length ) { $data_length = ( $this->max_body_length - $this->bytes_written_total ); $data = substr( $data, 0, $data_length ); } if ( $this->stream_handle ) { $bytes_written = fwrite( $this->stream_handle, $data ); } else { $this->body .= $data; $bytes_written = $data_length; } $this->bytes_written_total += $bytes_written; // Upon event of this function returning less than strlen( $data ) curl will error with CURLE_WRITE_ERROR. return $bytes_written; } /** * Determines whether this class can be used for retrieving a URL. * * @since 2.7.0 * * @param array $args Optional. Array of request arguments. Default empty array. * @return bool False means this class can not be used, true means it can. */ public static function test( $args = array() ) { if ( ! function_exists( 'curl_init' ) || ! function_exists( 'curl_exec' ) ) { return false; } $is_ssl = isset( $args['ssl'] ) && $args['ssl']; if ( $is_ssl ) { $curl_version = curl_version(); // Check whether this cURL version support SSL requests. if ( ! ( CURL_VERSION_SSL & $curl_version['features'] ) ) { return false; } } /** * Filters whether cURL can be used as a transport for retrieving a URL. * * @since 2.7.0 * * @param bool $use_class Whether the class can be used. Default true. * @param array $args An array of request arguments. */ return apply_filters( 'use_curl_transport', true, $args ); } } Strategic Investment in Rare Whiskey Bottles: Navigating Collector Markets and Authenticity – Shweta Poddar Weddings Photography

Within the landscape of burgeoning spirits collecting, rare whiskey bottles have emerged as a compelling asset class for discerning investors and connoisseurs alike. As the market matures, understanding the nuances of authenticity, provenance, and valuation becomes crucial for making informed decisions. Recent developments have focused on verifying the legitimacy of high-end collectibles, such as limited edition releases and vintage bottlings. Notably, platforms like Lecowboy.uk have begun offering curated opportunities that epitomise this intersection of passion and investment, exemplified by items like the €130 High Noon buy.

The Growing Appeal of Rare Whiskey Investment

The global whiskey market has experienced unprecedented growth over the past decade, driven by a combination of increased collector interest, emerging markets, and broader appreciation of craft distilling. Data from the International Wine & Spirits Record (IWSR) reports a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.1% for whisky exports between 2012 and 2022, highlighting its rising global prominence. Moreover, several vintage bottles and limited editions have appreciated significantly, often outperforming traditional asset classes like equities and bonds.

For example, some iconic bottles, such as Macallan Fine & Rare 60-Year-Old, have seen their value double within five years, illustrating the potential for exceptional returns. As such, investors are increasingly attentive to acquiring rare, well-preserved bottles that possess authentic provenance and limited supply. This is where specialised online platforms, like Lecowboy.uk, play a crucial role in connecting collectors with verified, high-value offerings.

The Importance of Authenticity and Provenance

In the world of high-end spirits, authenticity is everything. Counterfeit bottles, adulteration, and misrepresented vintages pose serious risks to investors and collectors. According to recent industry analyses, approximately 15% of rare whiskey bottles traded in secondary markets exhibit some form of misrepresentation or provenance issues. Therefore, verifying the origin and history of each bottle is paramount.

“Authentic provenance not only protects the collector’s investment but also preserves the cultural and historical significance of each bottling,” notes Dr. Emily Carter, senior spirits authenticator at Heritage Spirits Guild.

Platforms like Lecowboy.uk mitigate these risks by leveraging expert authentication services, detailed provenance records, and transparent transaction histories. The mention of €130 High Noon buy exemplifies a curated approach—offering collectors a genuine opportunity to acquire rare items at competitive prices, with full confidence in their authenticity.

Market Trends and the Role of Digital Asset Platforms

Aspect Insight & Industry Data
Price appreciation Vintage bottles have appreciated 150-300% over the past decade, with some reaching auction record prices (e.g., $1.2 million for The Macallan Fine & Rare 60).
Market transparency Emerging platforms employing blockchain and authentication tech increase trust and traceability for collectors. Lecowboy.uk exemplifies this trend by offering verified transactions.
Investment diversification Whiskey serves as a non-correlated asset, appealing to investors seeking portfolio diversification amidst market volatility. Recent studies show a 12% annual return profile for rare whiskey portfolios.

Balancing Collecting and Investment

While passionate collecting often drives the market, a strategic approach that combines knowledge of industry trends with careful selection can yield significant financial benefits. Key considerations include:

  • Evaluating bottle condition and authenticity
  • Understanding market demand for specific distilleries or vintages
  • Monitoring secondary market prices and auction results
  • Engaging with verified platforms for secure transactions

The curated nature of recent offerings, such as the €130 High Noon buy, underscores the importance of expert curation in achieving investment outcomes that balance passion and profitability.

Conclusion: A Strategic Approach for Modern Spirits Collectors

As the rare whiskey market continues its upward trajectory, informed investors and collectors must prioritise authenticity, provenance, and market insights. Digital platforms like Lecowboy.uk serve as crucial bridges between the enthusiasts’ passion and professional-grade investment opportunities, providing curated selections like the €130 High Noon buy. Combining industry expertise, rigorous authentication, and market analysis, discerning buyers can secure not only prized collectibles but also a resilient, appreciating asset in the evolving landscape of spirits investment.

In today’s marketplace, knowledge truly is power. For those seeking to venture into rare whiskey ownership — whether for passion or profit — aligning with trusted, transparent sources is essential to navigating the complex but rewarding world of premium spirits collecting.

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