how to send multidimensional array post data in php?

Question

I"m setting up a mock for a service and trying to return some data to my callback page to save to a db table.

This is the code that I'm using to send the mock to the callback:

function checkCallback(){

            $ch = curl_init("remote.domain.com/callback.php");

$jsonData = [


    "success" =>true,      
    "error" => null, 
"response"=> [
        "code"=>"ad3f0db2-62b6-4cf4-9027-14829d33cfd2",
        "state"=>"my-secret-state-123456789"
    ]

            ];

            $jsonDataEncoded = json_encode($jsonData);

            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $jsonDataEncoded);


            $result = curl_exec($ch);


            var_dump($result);
            echo $jsonDataEncoded;
              curl_close($ch);

}

callback.php:

<?php 


var_dump(get_defined_vars());

$un = 'username';
$pw = 'password';
$dsn = "mysql:host=localhost;port=3306;dbname=safelocal;charset=utf8";
$pdo_options = array(PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES => false, 
                     PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);


$db = new PDO($dsn, $un, $pw, $pdo_options);



    $updateUserData = $db->prepare('INSERT into `table` (`message`, `extra`) VALUES(:msg, :extra)');
            $updateUserData->execute([
                ':msg' =>$_POST["response"],
                ':extra' => $_POST["code"]
                                ]);

All I get back is a this strange response:

myfile.php:77:string 'array(4) {
  ["_GET"]=>
  array(0) {
  }
  ["_POST"]=>
  array(1) {
    ["{"success":true,"error":null,"response":{"code":"ad3f0db2-62b6-4cf4-9027-14829d33cfd2","state":"my-secret-state-123456789"}}"]=>
    string(0) ""
  }
  ["_COOKIE"]=>
  array(0) {
  }
  ["_FILES"]=>
  array(0) {
  }
}
' (length=291)

so we can see my data here, but how do we get it to act as key,value pairs so I can manipulate the data? Any guidance is appreciated.

it looks like the response you get back is from the var_dump and nothing from any db calls ~ try and see what you get when you do print_r( $_POST ) in the callback.php script — Professor Abronsius
– Professor Abronsius, Commented Sep 11, 2016 at 8:44
same, loads it with the entire data structure into the key rather than into each key and value pair — Frankenmint
– Frankenmint, Commented Sep 11, 2016 at 8:47
I strongly recommend using a Http client like Guzzle to make http requests and handle the responses. Using plain curl_ functions to fetch/send data from/to a resource produces more headaches and bugs than you think. — edigu
– edigu, Commented Sep 11, 2016 at 8:56

u_mulder · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-11 09:00:12Z

2

I'm not sure why you pass your data as json_string, but obviously a json string is considered a url_encoded string and decodes in what you get in your variables.

If json is not a requirement - you can pass your array directly to curl_setopt or encode it with http_build_query:

// passing raw array:
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $jsonData);

// passing query string:
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query($jsonData));

answered Sep 11, 2016 at 9:00

u_mulder

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1 Comment

Frankenmint Over a year ago

I don't know if this is the right fix for all circumstances, but this at least let me simulate what I needed and is a step in the right direction for me. Passing my array directly in http_build_query did it, setopt wasn't good for the embedded array

Professor Abronsius · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-11 08:56:07Z

I'm not sure this is what you were trying to do or whether it will work as it's not tested. There were a couple of issues - the Content-Type header had suprious extra single quotes, the url for the curl request didn't have the protocol ( though that might not be an issue ), the callback was echhoing out the input data rather than any response from remote script and as the data was json_encoded prior to sending it makes sense that it should be decoded before accessing at the remote script. Hope it helps.

function checkCallback(){
    $ch = curl_init("http://remote.domain.com/callback.php");

    $jsonData = array(
        "success" =>true,      
        "error" => null, 
        "response"=> array(
            "code"=>"ad3f0db2-62b6-4cf4-9027-14829d33cfd2",
            "state"=>"my-secret-state-123456789"
        )
    );

    $jsonDataEncoded = json_encode( $jsonData );

    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $jsonDataEncoded );
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array( "Content-Type: application/json" ) ); 


    $result = curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close($ch);

    echo $result;
}


<?php

    $un = 'username';
    $pw = 'password';

    $dsn = "mysql:host=localhost;port=3306;dbname=safelocal;charset=utf8";
    $pdo_options = array(
        PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES => false,
        PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION
    );

    $data=json_decode( $_POST );
    $msg=$data['response'];
    $extra=$data['code'];



    $db = new PDO( $dsn, $un, $pw, $pdo_options );

    $updateUserData = $db->prepare('INSERT into `table` (`message`, `extra`) VALUES (:msg, :extra)');
    $updateUserData->execute( array(
        ':msg'      =>  $msg,
        ':extra'    =>  $extra
    ));

    /* send any response data */
    print_r( $data );

?>

Hassaan · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-31 14:50:13Z

0

You need to set CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER option for the curl:

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-Type: application/json'));

then in the script where you receive the data you should use:

$data = json_decode(file_get_contents('php://input'), true);

this way in the $data variable you will have associative array with the values.

edited Dec 31, 2018 at 14:50

Hassaan

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answered Sep 11, 2016 at 9:01

ArturoO

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