You can try using CURL (this was mentioned above). Here is the documentation (from php.net): us2.php.net/manual/en/ref.curl.php (sorry can't link)...
If you take the trouble of building a wrapper library for the GUI API you will be using, it can actually be a breeze, so I voted no.
You can try Shadowed Portal (shad0wed.com). Shadowed Portal is flatfile (store data in files), so it uses neither MySQL or MSSQL. This is assuming...
Separate names with a comma.