PHP CURL DELETE request

Question

I'm trying to do a DELETE http request using PHP and cURL.

I have read how to do it many places, but nothing seems to work for me.

This is how I do it:

public function curl_req($path,$json,$req)
{
    $ch = curl_init($this->__url.$path);
    $data = json_encode($json);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, $req);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-Type: application/json','Content-Length: ' . strlen($data)));
    $result = curl_exec($ch);
    $result = json_decode($result);
    return $result;
}

I then go ahead and use my function:

public function deleteUser($extid)
{
    $path = "/rest/user/".$extid."/;token=".$this->__token;
    $result = $this->curl_req($path,"","DELETE");
    return $result;

}

This gives me HTTP internal server ERROR. In my other functions using the same curl_req method with GET and POST, everything goes well.

So what am I doing wrong?

The internal server error means there was a problem with the script receiving your request. — Brad
– Brad, Commented Nov 16, 2012 at 16:55
Thanks Brad - I know, I guess its because its not send as DELETE request. If I use a REST client plugin for Firefox and send the exact same request with DELETE, it works fine. So it seams like cURL is not sending the request as DELETE. — Bolli
– Bolli, Commented Nov 16, 2012 at 17:00
Thanks Marc, but it seams like he is doing the same thing as me? Is it impossible to send DELETE requests with PHP? If there is another way withouth cURL, I'm open to use that as well. — Bolli
– Bolli, Commented Nov 17, 2012 at 12:01

Alexis Wilke · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-02 02:59:57Z

268

I finally solved this myself. If anyone else is having this problem, here is my solution:

I created a new method:

public function curl_del($path)
{
    $url = $this->__url.$path;
    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "DELETE");
    $result = curl_exec($ch);
    $httpCode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
    curl_close($ch);

    return $result;
}

Update 2

Since this seems to help some people, here is my final curl DELETE method, which returns the HTTP response in JSON decoded object:

  /**
 * @desc    Do a DELETE request with cURL
 *
 * @param   string $path   path that goes after the URL fx. "/user/login"
 * @param   array  $json   If you need to send some json with your request.
 *                         For me delete requests are always blank
 * @return  Obj    $result HTTP response from REST interface in JSON decoded.
 */
public function curl_del($path, $json = '')
{
    $url = $this->__url.$path;
    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "DELETE");
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $json);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
    $result = curl_exec($ch);
    $result = json_decode($result);
    curl_close($ch);

    return $result;
}

edited Sep 2, 2017 at 2:59

Alexis Wilke

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answered Jul 29, 2013 at 22:52

Bolli

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9 Comments

user1788736 Over a year ago

can you tell me how we do ajax call to the php(method:delete) that hold this delete curl code and pass it value from ajax ?

Bolli Over a year ago

@user1788736 I'm not good at Ajax, but I guess you could create a PHP file that executes this method, and with Ajax send your data using POST to that PHP file. If you think the method above is confusing, look again. $url s simply the server you need to talk with (someserver.com) and $path is the stuff after the URL (/something/). The only reason I split these up, is because I need to send to the same server all the time, but with dynamic paths. Hope that makes sense.

irfanengineer Over a year ago

I am using same code, And Paypal return http code:204 it mean delete successfully. but I have receive 400 all time.

Muhammad Fahad Over a year ago

Update 2 is not working ..... When We send postfields then it is not working.........

Bolli Over a year ago

@kuttoozz that is a private variable in my class. It's simply the URL you need to make requests to. It could be something like api.someurl.com and $path is what goes after that url (/something/) . You can simply change that value to your URL or remove it and include the full URL in the $path variable. Does that make sense?

|

Juned Ansari · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-24 14:48:13Z

To call GET,POST,DELETE,PUT All kind of request, i have created one common function

function CallAPI($method, $api, $data) {
    $url = "http://localhost:82/slimdemo/RESTAPI/" . $api;
    $curl = curl_init($url);
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
    
    switch ($method) {
        case "GET":
            curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($data));
            curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "GET");
            break;
        case "POST":
            curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($data));
            curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "POST");
            break;
        case "PUT":
            curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($data));
            curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "PUT");
            break;
        case "DELETE":
            curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "DELETE"); 
            curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($data));
            break;
    }
    $response = curl_exec($curl);
    $data = json_decode($response);

    /* Check for 404 (file not found). */
    $httpCode = curl_getinfo($curl, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
    // Check the HTTP Status code
    switch ($httpCode) {
        case 200:
            $error_status = "200: Success";
            return ($data);
            break;
        case 404:
            $error_status = "404: API Not found";
            break;
        case 500:
            $error_status = "500: servers replied with an error.";
            break;
        case 502:
            $error_status = "502: servers may be down or being upgraded. Hopefully they'll be OK soon!";
            break;
        case 503:
            $error_status = "503: service unavailable. Hopefully they'll be OK soon!";
            break;
        default:
            $error_status = "Undocumented error: " . $httpCode . " : " . curl_error($curl);
            break;
    }
    curl_close($curl);
    echo $error_status;
    die;
}

CALL Delete Method

$data = array('id'=>$_GET['did']);
$result = CallAPI('DELETE', "DeleteCategory", $data);

CALL Post Method

$data = array('title'=>$_POST['txtcategory'],'description'=>$_POST['txtdesc']);
$result = CallAPI('POST', "InsertCategory", $data);

CALL Get Method

$data = array('id'=>$_GET['eid']);
$result = CallAPI('GET', "GetCategoryById", $data);

CALL Put Method

$data = array('id'=>$_REQUEST['eid'],'title'=>$_REQUEST['txtcategory'],'description'=>$_REQUEST['txtdesc']);
$result = CallAPI('POST', "UpdateCategory", $data);

well done. Just a note: the http response code for delete is 204. I think you should consider all 20x codes as good response :)

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