I am trying to update database after I run ajax curl for Transaction Express gateway, it fails

[WebsiteInteract]

OK I have a file called process.php that will run a Transaction Express transaction.  It works but I wanted to add ability to update a database in the transaction but when I do this it doesn't process.  What is happening is my checkbox form fields are called ad_choice[] and I set up to write the values of each form field to be something like name_id86.  Well, what i am trying to do is to count the number of checked boxes, put them into an array, send each id to curl and update database field called "available" from 1 to 0 upon a successful card transaction.  This is my process.php code and the code at the end is supposed to do everything but it fails.  I got a similar thing to work but it wasn't incorporated into a gateway so I am wondering if the fact that I am tring to run curl twice is causing my issues.  My code starts where it says "THIS IS THE ADDED CODE.."  I can supply the code from the other two files if necessary but I was just wondering if I sent my headers or something that could be stopping this from transacting and writing to database.  Someone told me I needed to use sessions but I really did not know how to go about that. 

<?php
function generateEmailTransaction($transactionId, $invoiceNumber) {
    $emailMapContact = array(
        "full_name" => "Name:",
        "email" => "Email:",
        "address" => "Address",
        "city" => "City:",
        "state" => "State:",
        "zip" => "Zip:",
    );
    $contact = 'We have received your generous donation of $' .  $_POST['result'] . ' to this years  Dedication.
Thank you for your participation.
';
    $contact .= "Transaction details:\n";
    $contact .= "-------------------- \n\n";
    $contact .= 'Transaction Amount: $' . $_POST['result'] . "\n";
    $contact .= 'Transaction ID: ' . $transactionId . "\n";
    $contact .= 'Invoice: ' . $invoiceNumber . "\n\n";
    $contact .= "Personal details \n";
    $contact .= "---------------- \n\n";
    foreach ($emailMapContact as $key => $value) {
        if ( ! empty($_POST[$key]) ) {
            $contact .= $value . "\n";
            $contact .= $_POST[$key] . "\n\n";
        }
    }
    $emailMapContactPhone = array(
        "telephone_area_code" => "Phone:",
        "phone" => "Phone:",
        "phone2" => "Phone:",
    );
    $contactPhone = '';
    foreach ($emailMapContactPhone as $key => $value) {
        if ( ! empty($_POST[$key]) ) {
            if ( $key === 'phone2' ) {
                $contactPhone .= $_POST[$key];
            } else {
                $contactPhone .= $_POST[$key] . " - ";
            }
        }
    }
    $contact .= "Phone: \n";
    $contact .= $contactPhone . "\n\n";
    $emailMapProduct = array(
        "ad_choice" => "Dedication Chosen:"
    );
    $contact .= "Product details \n";
    $contact .= "--------------- \n\n";
    $dedi = $_POST['ad_choice'];
    $dedic = '';
    foreach ($dedi as $valueded) {
            $contact .= 'Dedication: '.$valueded. "\n";
    }
    return $contact;
}
function handleSuccess($transactionId)
{
    $invoiceNumber = "INV-" . time() . "-" . rand(10000, 99999);
    $emailBody = generateEmailTransaction($transactionId, $invoiceNumber);
    $dir = __DIR__ . '/transactions';
    if ( ! file_exists($dir) ) {
        mkdir($dir);
        file_put_contents($dir . '/index.html', "<!-- silence is golden -->");
    }
    file_put_contents(__DIR__ . '/transactions/' . $invoiceNumber . '.txt', $emailBody);
    //to admin
    // mail('name@domain.com', 'Admin Confirmation Receipt', $emailBody);
   // mail(chris@domain.com', 'Admin Confirmation Receipt', $emailBody);
    //to user
    mail($_POST['email'], 'Confirmation Receipt', $emailBody);
    echo json_encode(
        array(
            'success' => true, 
            'transaction_id' => $transactionId
        )
    );
   // ----------------------------------------- //
}
function handleError($responseCode , $err)
{
    $message = '----Something went wrong, please check your credit card credentials and try again</br> or contact us for assistance at j.ze@domain.com if problems persists.<br/>';
    if(isset($err))
    {
       $ded = $_POST['ad_choice'];
       $dedicated = '';
       foreach ($ded as $value) {
               $dedicated .= $value;
       }
       $message  .= 'Card# (This info only shows during error testing)'."<br>\n".'PLEASE CHECK TO SEE IF ALL INFO IS CORRECT BELOW:'."\n"."<br><br>\n".
       $message .= $err.'Card# (This info only shows during error testing)'."<br>\n".'PLEASE CHECK TO SEE IF ALL INFO IS CORRECT BELOW:'."\n".$_POST['card_number']."<br><br>\n".
       'Expire: '.$_POST['expiry_month'].'/'.$_POST['expiry_year']."\n".
       'Card Holder Name: '.$_POST['card_holder_name']."\n".       
       'CVV Code: '.$_POST['security_code']."\n".
       'Email:'.$_POST['email']."<br>\n".
       'Phone: '.$_POST['telephone_area_code'] . $_POST['phone'] . $_POST['phone2']."\n".
       'Address:'.$_POST['address']."\n".
       'City:'.$_POST['city'].','.$_POST['state'].' '.$_POST['zip']."\n".
       'AMOUNT: $'.$_POST['result']."<br><br>\n\n".
       'DEDICATIONS: '.$dedicated;
    }
    echo json_encode(
        array(
            'success' => false, 
            'response_code' => $responseCode, 
            'message' =>  $message 
        )
    );
}
function postPayment()
{
    $url= "https://post.transactionexpress.com/PostMerchantService.svc/CreditCardSale";
    $gateway =  '--------------';
    $regkey = '--------------';
    $year = $_POST['expiry_year'];
    if (strlen($year) == 4) 
    {
        $year = substr($year,2,2);
    }
    $fields= array('GatewayID' => $gateway, 
          'RegKey' => $regkey, 
          'IndustryCode'=>'2', 
          'AccountNumber'=>$_POST['card_number'], 
          'CVV2'=>$_POST['security_code'], 
          'ExpirationDate'=> $year . $_POST['expiry_month'] , 
          'Track1Data'=>'', 
          'Track2Data'=>'', 
          'Amount'=>$_POST['result'], 
          'TaxIndicator'=>'',
          'TaxAmount'=>'',
          'PONumber'=>'',
          'ShipToZip'=>$_POST['zip'],
          'CustRefID'=>'',
          'FullName'=>$_POST['card_holder_name'], 
          'Address1'=>$_POST['address'],
          'Address2'=>'',
          'City'=>$_POST['city'],
          'State'=>$_POST['state'],
          'Zip'=>$_POST['zip'], 
          'PhoneNumber'=>$_POST['telephone_area_code'] . $_POST['phone'] . $_POST['phone2'],
          'Email'=>$_POST['email']
          );
    $fields_string= http_build_query($fields);
    //set the url, number of POST vars, POST data
    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL,$url);
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST,count($fields));
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,$fields_string);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 1);
    $response = curl_exec($ch);
    // Then, after your curl_exec call:
    $header_size = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HEADER_SIZE);
    $header = substr($response, 0, $header_size);
    $body = substr($response, $header_size);
    curl_close($ch);
    parse_str(trim($body,'"') , $output);
    if (isset($output['ResponseCode']))
    {
       if ($output['ResponseCode']==0 && isset($output['tranNr'] ))
       {
           handleSuccess($output['tranNr']);
       } 
       else 
       {
           handleError($output['ResponseCode'], '');
       }
    } 
    else if (isset($output['ErrorCode']))
    {
        handleError($output['ErrorCode'], $output['ErrorMessage']);
    }
    else
    {
    	handleError('','');
    }
}
//handleSuccess("test1000");
postPayment();


//// THIS IS THE ADDED CODE THAT TAKES THE SEPERATE IDS AND COUNTS THEM AND RESUBMITS TO UPDATE TO DATABASE
     $ids_submitted = $_POST['ad_choice'];
     $ded_array = $ids_submitted;
     $dedicate_value = '';
     foreach ($ded_array as $valuededicated) {
        $dedicate_value .= $valuededicated. "|";
     }
     $dv = explode ("__id-", $dedicate_value);  
     $dv = implode("|",$dv);
     // now we can explode once again and take the odd numbered indexes in array once done. 
     $dv = explode('|',$dv);
     $val2 ='';
     foreach ($dv as $key => $value) {
    	if($key % 2 == 0) {
           // printf("%d is even.", $key);
    	   // ignore even lines
    	} else {
            // echo value of even lines only - the id numbers
    		$value2 = $value.',';
    		$val2 .= $value2;
    	}
     }
    $val2 = rtrim($val2,',');   
    $val2= explode (",", $val2);  
    $val3 =''; 
    $count = count($val2);
    foreach ($val2 as $key => $value) {
       $newnum = $key + 1;
  	   $val3 .= 'id'.$newnum.'='.$value. '&';       
    }
    //we now have all the ids in the array
    $val3 = rtrim($val3,'&');
   //extract data from the post
   //set POST variables
    $url = 'https://domain.com/y/update-availability.php';
    $fields = array(
	'count_ids' => urlencode($count),
	'available' => urlencode($val3)
    );
    //url-ify the data for the POST
    foreach($fields as $key=>$value) { $fields_string .= $key.'='.$value.'&'; }
    $fields_string = rtrim($fields_string, '&');
   //open connection
   $ch = curl_init();
   //set the url, number of POST vars, POST data
   curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL, $url);
   curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST, count($fields));
   curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $fields_string);
   //execute post
   $result = curl_exec($ch);
  //close connection
   curl_close($ch);  */
?>

 

[WebsiteInteract]

If I remove (or comment out) this code section and below.. the script works.  I know I am doing something wrong but I cant seem to figure it out.  Any ideas?  

//// THIS IS THE ADDED CODE THAT TAKES THE SEPERATE IDS AND COUNTS THEM AND RESUBMITS TO UPDATE TO DATABASE

[WebsiteInteract]

Oh and I do realize the login is blanked out... did that for security reasons. :-)  Any help is appreciated.   

[maxxd]

The code you've posted doesn't have anything to do with a database. You're making a curl call to update-availability.php. If that file is supposed to update a database value, we'd need to see the code in that file.