How to execute a Json call inside the plugin

Question

//The following call returns either 1 or true. It supposed to return a array of arrays. The data returns if the url below  is posted directly in the browser.

 

   $url="http://lnyce6wq.nyc-p02.chp.bankofamerica.com:8080/glue/restservice?contenttype=related&question=repo";

    $ch = curl_init($url);

   $result = curl_exec($ch);

   $arr = json_decode($result);

       foreach($arr as $key=> $value){

                      error_log("VALUES: $value\n", 3, "/var/www/html/q2a/log/glue-debug3.log");

 

                   if( $key == "items" ){

 

                     error_log("VALUES: $value\n", 3, "/var/www/html/q2a/log/glue-debug3.log");

                      print_r($val);

                    }

  }