Trouble with POST API using cURL - php

Question

I'm trying to post to an API using cURL with no luck. I've been researching this for 2-days now and I can't seem to get it to work.
Here is an example of a URL that I can paste into a web browser and it works, no problem:
http://{myserver}:{port}/api.aspx?Action=AddTicket&Key=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx&Subject=Test&Description=Test&Username={domain}\{username}
(I obviously redacted some information).
I know that cURL is up to date and working on the server because I can make a simple request out to [http://www.google.com] and it returns the page properly and I've also confirmed it on the php.info page as being ENABLED.
I've tried every layout I can find for the cURL code such as settings the POSTFIELDS as an array as well as a string. I've followed along with multiple YouTube videos and web tutorials to the 'T' with no success. I've even tried setting the URL parameter in the $ch to the entire above URL just for the heck of it... No success.
Can anyone explain or give examples of how this should be formatted so that it simply posts a URL identical to the one above??
Much appreciated!
As requested, here's my code.
$url = 'http://{server}:{port}/api.aspx?Action=AddTicket';
$post_data = '&key=' . $key . '&subject=' . $subject . '&description=' . $details . '&username={domain}\{username}';
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $post_data);
$output = curl_exec($ch);
if ($output === false) {
echo "cURL Error: " . curl_error($ch);
}
curl_close($ch);
print_r($output);
And here is my attempt using an array instead of a string for the POSTFIELDS.
$url = 'http://{server}:{port}/api.aspx?Action=AddTicket';
$post_data = array(
'key' => $key,
'subject' => $subject,
'description' => $details,
'username' => '{domain}\{username}'
);
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query($post_data));
$output = curl_exec($ch);
if ($output === false) {
echo "cURL Error: " . curl_error($ch);
}
curl_close($ch);
print_r($output);
EDIT
I've tried some of the examples given in the comments. Here's a small test I'm currently running.
$data = array(
'Action' => 'AddTicket',
'Key' => 'xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx',
'Subject' => 'test',
'Description' => 'test',
'Username' => '{domain}\{username}'
);
$query = http_build_query($data);
$url = 'http://{server}:{port}/api.aspx?' . $query;
print_r($url);
$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => 1,
CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH => CURLAUTH_ANY,
CURLOPT_URL => $url
));
$resp = curl_exec($curl);
curl_close($curl);
Now, if I straight up take the $url variable from the above code and run this...
header("Location:" . $url);
die();
It works perfectly... so my problem has to be something in the cURL syntax or parameters...
EDIT
After adding the following code...
var_dump($resp);
var_dump(curl_getinfo($curl, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE));
var_dump(curl_error($curl));
I get the following result...
string(0) ""
int(401)
string(0) ""
Anyone know what this means?

Answer 1

Your working example indicates that this is not a POST request at all, but instead a GET request.
Try building your URL like so:
$data = array(
'Action' => 'AddTicket',
'key' => $key,
'subject' => $subject,
'description' => $details,
'username' => '{domain}\{username}'
);
$query = http_build_query($data);
$url = 'http://{myserver}:{port}/api.aspx?' . $query;
Then you probably only need to perform a GET request to that URL.

Answer 2

Edit: Seeing your latest update, try using json_encode on your postfields.
The URL you're supplying uses GET parameters. Hopefully the below snippet should help;
$curl = curl_init();
// Heres our POSTFIELDS
$params = array(
'param1' => 'blah1',
'param2' => 'blah2'
);
$params_json = json_encode($params);
curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
CURLOPT_URL => 'http://example.com',
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
CURLOPT_POST => 1,
CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH => CURLAUTH_ANY,
CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $params_json
));
$response = curl_exec($curl);
$error = curl_error($curl);
curl_close($curl);