How do I send info to this API using cURL and PUT? - php

Question

I am working with an API that is documented here: https://cutt.ly/BygHsPV
The documentation is a bit thin, but I am trying to understand it the best I can. There will not be a developer from the creator of the API available before the middle of next week, and I was hoping to get stuff done before that.
Basically what I am trying to do is update the consent of the customer. As far as I can understand from the documentation under API -> Customer I need to send info through PUT to /customers/{customerId}. That object has an array called "communicationChoices".
Going into Objects -> CustomerUpdate I find "communicationChoices" which is specified as "Type: list of CommunicationChoiceRequest". That object looks like this:
{
"choice": true,
"typeCode": ""
}
Doing my best do understand this, I have made this function:
function update_customer_consent() {
global $userPhone, $username, $password;
// Use phone number to get correct user
$url = 'https://apiurlredacted.com/api/v1/customers/' . $userPhone .'?customeridtype=MOBILE';
// Initiate cURL.
$ch = curl_init( $url );
// Specify the username and password using the CURLOPT_USERPWD option.
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, $username . ":" . $password );
// Tell cURL to return the output as a string instead
// of dumping it to the browser.
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true );
// Data to send
$data = [
"communicationChoices" => [
"communicationChoiceRequest" => [
"choice" => true,
"typeCode" => "SMS"
]
]
];
$json_payload = json_encode($data);
print_r($json_payload);
// Set other options
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-Type: application/json','Content-Length: ' . strlen($json_payload)));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "PUT");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $json_payload);
// Execute the cURL request
$response = curl_exec($ch);
// Check for errors.
if( curl_errno( $ch ) ) :
// If an error occured, throw an Exception.
throw new Exception( curl_error( $ch ) );
endif;
if (!$response)
{
return false;
} else {
// Decode JSON
$obj = json_decode( $response );
}
print_r($response);
}
I understand that this is very hard to debug without knowing what is going on within the API and with limited documentation, but I figured asking here was worth a shot anyway.
Basically, $json_payload seems to be a perfectly fine JSON object. The response from the API however, is an error code that means unknown error. So I must be doing something wrong. Maybe someone has more experience with APIs and such documentation and can see what I should really be sending and how.
Any help or guidance will be highly appreciated!

Answer 1

before you test your code, you can use the form provided on the API Documentation.
when you navigate to API > Customers > /customers/{customerId} (GET), you will see a form on the right side of the page (scroll up). you need to provide the required values on the form then hit Submit button. you will surely get a valid data for communicationChoices based on the result from the Response Text section below the Submit button.
now, follow the data structure of communicationChoices object that you get from the result and try the same on API > Customers > /customers/{customerId} (PUT) form.
using the API forms, you may be able to instantly see a success or error from your input (data structure), then translate it to your code.