cURL returns an empty string - php

Question

I have following code which returns an empty string (in variable $result)
$createdURL = "https://telenorcsms.com.pk:27677/corporate_sms2/api/sendsms.jsp?session_id=123&to=92315&text=test&mask=1"
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "$createdURL");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "POST");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 15);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8')) ;
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
echo var_dump($result);
if(curl_errno($ch)){
echo 'Curl error: ' . curl_error($ch);
}
curl_close($ch);
Whereas when I run the link given in first line in browser address bar it returns following XML.
<corpsms>
<command>Submit_SM</command>
<data>Error 102</data>
<response>Error</response>
</corpsms>
Please help where am I wrong.

Answer 1

You are missing curl_init()
So use this code and you'll get a response from the API:
<?php
$createdURL = "https://telenorcsms.com.pk:27677/corporate_sms2/api/sendsms.jsp?session_id=123&to=92315&text=test&mask=1";
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $createdURL);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "POST");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 15);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8')) ;
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
echo var_dump($result);
if(curl_errno($ch)){
echo 'Curl error: ' . curl_error($ch);
}
curl_close($ch);
You should also check whether you need to send the Content-Tye: text/xml header and whether you should be using a POST or a GET.

Answer 2

This was due to space given in parameters of link like below
$createdURL = "https://telenorcsms.com.pk:27677/corporate_sms2/api/sendsms.jsp?session_id=123&to=92315&text=test and test&mask=my mask";
After removing space it is now giving output, but now need to tackle matter of spaces.

Answer 3

You can enable the CURLOPT_VERBOSE option:
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, true);
When CURLOPT_VERBOSE is set, output is written to STDERR or the file specified using CURLOPT_STDERR. The output is very informative.
You can also use tcpdump or wireshark to watch the network traffic.