With Sara's help, I have the following SS2 class that is quite flexible. If anyone improves it, please feel free to let me know.

<?php

// ssh protocols
// note: once openShell method is used, cmdExec does not work

class ssh2 {

  private $host = 'host';
  private $user = 'user';
  private $port = '22';
  private $password = 'password';
  private $con = null;
  private $shell_type = 'xterm';
  private $shell = null;
  private $log = '';

  function __construct($host='', $port=''  ) {

     if( $host!='' ) $this->host  = $host;
     if( $port!='' ) $this->port  = $port;

     $this->con  = ssh2_connect($this->host, $this->port);
     if( !$this->con ) {
       $this->log .= "Connection failed !"; 
     }

  }

  function authPassword( $user = '', $password = '' ) {

     if( $user!='' ) $this->user  = $user;
     if( $password!='' ) $this->password  = $password;

     if( !ssh2_auth_password( $this->con, $this->user, $this->password ) ) {
       $this->log .= "Authorization failed !"; 
     }

  }

  function openShell( $shell_type = '' ) {

        if ( $shell_type != '' ) $this->shell_type = $shell_type;
    $this->shell = ssh2_shell( $this->con,  $this->shell_type );
    if( !$this->shell ) $this->log .= " Shell connection failed !";

  }

  function writeShell( $command = '' ) {

    fwrite($this->shell, $command."\n");

  }

  function cmdExec( ) {

        $argc = func_num_args();
        $argv = func_get_args();

    $cmd = '';
    for( $i=0; $i<$argc ; $i++) {
        if( $i != ($argc-1) ) {
          $cmd .= $argv[$i]." && ";
        }else{
          $cmd .= $argv[$i];
        }
    }
    echo $cmd;

        $stream = ssh2_exec( $this->con, $cmd );
    stream_set_blocking( $stream, true );
    return fread( $stream, 4096 );

  }

  function getLog() {

     return $this->log; 

  }

}

?>