How can I get the binary image returned from a php file stored as a variable?

Question

I am creating a PDF with fpdf I can insert an image such as

$pdf->Image('images/image.jpg',0,20,210,80);

I can insert an image such as

$pdf->Image('http://www.thesearchagents.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Google-Search.jpg',0,20,210,80);

in HTML I can serve an image to my page with

<img src="http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?center=Berkeley,CA&zoom=14&size=400x400&sensor=false" alt="image" height="200" width="300" />

but if I try

$pdf->Image('http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?center=Berkeley,CA&zoom=14&size=400x400&sensor=false',0,20,210,80);

I get an error

"FPDF error: Unsupported image type: php"

since it is not the actual image file and is only serving the image I am guessing it does not work with setting the header

header('Content-Type: image/png');

what can I do?

Can I capture the image binary and store it in a variable? to then be passed along?

If so, then my question is: How do capture the image source from a return of a php file and store it in a variable in php?

Answer 1

$bin = file_get_contents('http://your_image_binary_source_url_here'); //fetch binary source

$local_name = "/tmp/".time().'.png';
file_put_contents($local_name, $bin); //create image locally

$pdf->Image($local_name,0,20,210,80); //add image to pdf

unlink($local_name); //delete local image