Post data to URL and get response (JSON, PHP ??)

[azukah]

Hi-

I have to post to a URL, grab one field our of the JSON output/response and format nicely to the user. I've tried a few things with some help but none seem to be working. So any help or direction would be greatly appreciate it!!

 

Attempt 1 (works but not formatted nicely)

if I post using the browser, it works. the data is sent to the URL (web service) and I can see in the web service logs that the entry has been recorded. the problem is that since i have the URL in "action", i'm taken to that page and the user gets to see the JSON output

 

//here's the HTML form in offer.php
<form action="http://somewebservice.com/<?php echo $PrizeID;?>" method="post" name="myform">
<input name="account" id="account" type="hidden" value="<?php echo $account;?>"/>
<input name="dob" id="dob" type="hidden"  value="<?php echo $dob;?>"/>
<input name="site" id="site" type="hidden"  value="<?php echo $site;?>"/>
<input id="submit" type="submit" value="submit"/>
</form>

//here's the output (JSON) after clicking submit
{"Prize":"XXXXXX","ConfirmationCode":"######","Error":false,"ErrorMsg":null}

 

 

Attempt 2 (doens't work)

i tried using php but after submit, the page refreshes and no entry is recorded in the web service log

 

//here's the HTML form in offer.php
<form name="myform">
<input name="account" id="account" type="hidden" value="<?php echo $account;?>"/>
<input name="dob" id="dob" type="hidden"  value="<?php echo $dob;?>"/>
<input name="site" id="site" type="hidden"  value="<?php echo $site;?>"/>
<input id="submit" type="submit" value="submit"/>

//here's the php in offer.php
<?php 
if(isset($_POST['submit'])){
$options = array(
            'http'=>array(
                'method'=>"POST",
                'content'=>http_build_query(array(
                        'account' => $account,
                        'dob' =>   $dob,
                        'site' => $site
                    ))
            ));

        $context = stream_context_create($options);
        $result =  file_get_contents("http://somewebservice.com/{$PrizeID}",NULL,$context);
        var_dump($result);
}
?>

 

Last attempt (doesn't work)

i tried using php & curl so that i can process in the back and show only the ConfirmationCode to the user in a nice format but it doesn't work. after submit, i'm taken to process.php where i see nothing and no entry is recorded in the web service log

 

//here's the HTML form in offer.php
<form action="process.php" method="post" name="myform">
<input name="account" id="account" type="hidden" value="<?php echo $account;?>"/>
<input name="dob" id="dob" type="hidden"  value="<?php echo $dob;?>"/>
<input name="site" id="site" type="hidden"  value="<?php echo $site;?>"/>
<input id="submit" type="submit" value="submit"/>
</form>

//here's the PHP in process.php
<?php 
$postvars=file_get_contents("php://input");
$curl=curl_init("http://somewebservice.com/{$PrizeID}");
curl_setopt($curl,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,$postvars);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true); 
$result=curl_exec($curl);
$decodedresult=json_decode($result,true);
?>

 

i haven't gotten to the point where i grab the ConfirmationCode I want because i want to get this fixed first and also because i can't get that to work but will focus on that once i fix this.

Thanks.

[seanlim]

In your second attempt, shouldn't the <form> have method="post" too? Is that why there isn't an entry in your access log?

[azukah]

@Seanlim: thanks.  i didnt notice that. I added POST as method and still same result

[seanlim]

does the request at least appear in the access log now?

 

also (not too sure if it has any effect, but) it should be good to explicitly set the content-type of your http request. i.e. application/x-www-form-urlencoded since you are using http_build_query.

[azukah]

@seanlIm: no, it doees't. It only appears in the web service log when submit via browser (attemp 1).

[seanlim]

I am assuming that you do not own "somewebservice.com" and therefore do not have access to their service logs, and the log you are referring to that of your own PHP form?

 

I tried running the snippet you provided for attempt 2, and you ARE indeed required to provide a Content-Type for the request. Apart from that, the code works well and is able to properly generate a HTTP POST request and retrieve the appropriate response.

 

If you have already tried adding a Content-Type to your request and it still doesn't work, I am thinking the error lies somewhere else in offer.php. Try something along the lines of exit()-ing with a message within your if condition just to make sure the first POST is successful.

[azukah]

I do have access to the web service log. Ill try again as soin as i get home and will let u know. Thanks.

[azukah]

hi-

i added post method to the form and content type to php and still not working. no idea what's wrong 

<form name="myform" method="post">
<input name="account" id="account" type="hidden" value="<?php echo $account;?>"/>
<input name="dob" id="dob" type="hidden"  value="<?php echo $dob;?>"/>
<input name="site" id="site" type="hidden"  value="<?php echo $site;?>"/>
<input id="submit" type="submit" value="submit"/>
//
if(isset($_POST['submit'])){
$options = array(
            'http'=>array(
                'method'=>"POST",
                'contentType'=> "application/json",
                'content'=>http_build_query(array(
                        'account' => $account,
                        'dob' =>   $dob,
                        'site' => $site
                    ))
            ));

        $context = stream_context_create($options);
        $result =  file_get_contents("http://somewebservice.com/{$PrizeID}",NULL,$context);
        var_dump($result);
}

[seanlim]

That's the wrong content type. In http_build_query, you are specifying the content type of your POST request, which is application/x-www-form-urlencoded, not what you are requesting for. The web service will specify the json content-type.

[azukah]

oh! makes sense.  thanks. i changed it but no luck. 

 

'contentType'=> "application/x-www-form-urlencoded",

[seanlim]

Possibly, an invalid HTTP request is being generated. Test this by printing out $context, see if it is formatted correctly.

 

You are also not accessing the POST-ed variables through the global $_POST variable, maybe that's an issue? Or maybe you have omitted that portion of the code...

[azukah]

this is all the code i have...

 

<?php 
if(isset($_POST['submit'])){
$options = array(
            'http'=>array(
                'method'=>"POST",
                'contentType'=> "application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
                'content'=>http_build_query(array(
                        'account' => $account,
                        'dob' =>   $dob,
                        'site' => $site
                    ))
            ));

        $context = stream_context_create($options);
        $result =  file_get_contents("http://somewebservice.com/{$PrizeID}",NULL,$context);
        var_dump($result);
}
?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
<title>Reserve</title>
</head>
<body>
<form name="myform" method="post">
<input name="account" id="account" type="hidden" value="<?php echo $account;?>"/>
<input name="dob" id="dob" type="hidden"  value="<?php echo $dob;?>"/>
<input name="site" id="site" type="hidden"  value="<?php echo $site;?>"/>
<input id="submit" type="submit" value="submit"/>
</form>
</body>
</html>

[seanlim]

You missed out the name attribute for your submit button!

 

Put in name="submit" and you should at least get some visible result (or error)..

[azukah]

thanks! i got this error

bool(false)

 

when i echo'd $context, i got "Resource id #4"

 

 

[seanlim]

I think the remaining errors are due to your use of the variables $account, $dob, $site, and $PrizeID.

 

Where are those values defined? Shouldn't you be using $_POST['account'], $_POST['dob'], and $_POST['site'] instead?

 

And is error reporting turned on? If not, turn it on!

[azukah]

thanks again.

//$PrizeID comes from previous page
//and i changed the the other 3 to 
$_POST['account'];
$_POST['dob'];
$_POST['site'];

 

i also removed the variable and coded the actual values and got the same results.

 

Here's the updated ocde:

<?php 
//get PrzeID
if (isset($_GET['PrizeID'])) {
$PrizeID = $_GET['PrizeID'];
}
//POST
if(isset($_POST['submit'])){
$options = array(
            'http'=>array(
                'method'=>"POST",
                'contentType'=>"application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
                'content'=>http_build_query(array(
                        'account' => $_POST['account'],
                        'dob' =>   $_POST['dob'],
                        'site' => $_POST['site']
                    ))
            ));

        $context = stream_context_create($options);
        $result =  file_get_contents("http://somewebservice.com/{$PrizeID}",NULL,$context);
        var_dump($result);
        $json_result = json_decode($result);

}
?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
</head>
<body>
<form name="myform" method="post">
<input name="account" id="account" type="hidden" value="<?php echo $account;?>"/>
<input name="dob" id="dob" type="hidden"  value="<?php echo $dob;?>"/>
<input name="site" id="site" type="hidden"  value="<?php echo $site;?>"/>
<input id="submit" type="submit" value="submit"/>
</form>
<div id="result">
<p><?php echo json_encode($_POST);?></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>

 

Here are the results I get when I add name="submit" to the form submit button:

bool(false)
{"account":"300207601","dob":"12\/12\/2012","site":"HLY","submit":"submit"}

 

when i don't have name="submit", i don't get bool(false) and this is the echo for json_encode($_POST)

{"account":"300207601","dob":"12\/12\/2012","site":"HLY"}

[azukah]

i was playing with php and curl and managed to make it work till it does write to the DB via the web service which is great 

what i need now is to get the ConfirmationCode and no idea how to do that...  i'll put another post for the confirmationcode part because this has run a bit long.

 

here's the updated code (from attempt 3)

//this is from offer.php file
<form action="process.php" method="post" name="myform">
<input id="submit" type="submit" value="submit"/>
</form>

//here's the php with Curl in process.php
<?php 
$data = array("account" => "{$account}", "dob" => "{$dob}", "site" => "{$site}");                                                                    
$data_string = json_encode($data); 

$ch = curl_init("http://somewebservice.com/{$PrizeID}");                                                                      
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "POST");                                                                     
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data_string);                                                                  
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);                                                                      
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(                                                                          
    'Content-Type: application/json',                                                                                
    'Content-Length: ' . strlen($data_string))                                                                       
);                                                                                                                   
$result = curl_exec($ch);                            
curl_close($ch);
?>

[seanlim]

1. You would want to use $_POST['...'] in your <input> fields too.

 

2. Use Content-Type instead of contentType

 

I can't see anything else in your code that could cause the file_get_contents function to return false, apart from the possibility that the server is rejecting the HTTP request and not returning a response.

 

If it still doesn't work, hopefully someone else will be able to spot the problems in your code.

[azukah]

it works now  :D

here's the complete code:

 

//this is the submit button in offer.php
<form action="process.php" method="post" name="myform">
<input id="submit" type="submit" value="submit"/>
</form>

//this process.php
<?php
$data = array("account" => "{$account}", "dob" => "{$dob}", "site" => "{$site}");                                                                    
$data_string = json_encode($data); 

$ch = curl_init("http://somewebservice.com/{$PrizeID}");                                                                      
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "POST");                                                                     
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data_string);                                                                  
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);                                                                      
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(                                                                          
    'Content-Type: application/json',                                                                                
    'Content-Length: ' . strlen($data_string))                                                                       
);                                                                                                                   
$result = curl_exec($ch);                            
curl_close($ch);
$json_result = json_decode($result, true);
?>
// here's the call for the confirmation number
<p>Your confirmation number is: <strong><?php echo $json_result['ConfirmationCode'];?></strong></p>