Request-URI Too Long - SMS API - php

Question

My problem is somehow peculiar. I have this bulksms api from my provider:
http://www.estoresms.com/smsapi.php?username=user&password=1234&sender=##sender##&recipient=##recipient##&m
essage=##message##&
then i wrapped it in PHP and passed it in cURL:
$api = "http://www.estoresms.com/smsapi.php?username=".$sms_user."&password=".$sms_pwd."&sender=".$sender_id."&recipient=".$numbers."&message=".$text."&";
function curl_get_contents($url)
{
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
$data = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
return $data;
}
$send_it = curl_get_contents($api);
ordinarily, it worked fine, but when $recepient (phone numbers) are more than say 300, i get an error:
Request-URI Too Long
The requested URL's length exceeds the capacity limit for this server.
Additionally, a 414 Request-URI Too Long error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
But BulkSMS should be able to send to thousands of numbers at a time.
From my research, i found out that there's a limit to URL. I'm not the server owner. i working on a shared hosting plan. pls how can i get around this problem. I know there's a solution to it that would not mean buying my own server.
Thanks

Answer 1

Can you try to make the API use POST instead of GET. It would solve the issue.
Edit:
I'm not sure your API check POST, but try that:
$api = "http://www.estoresms.com/smsapi.php";
$data = array('username' => $sms_user, 'password' => $sms_pwd, 'sender' => $sender_id , 'recipient' => $numbers , 'message' => $text);
function curl_get_contents($url)
{
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
$data = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
return $data;
}
$send_it = curl_get_contents($api);

Answer 2

Have a look at this code example (from bulksms.com).
http://developer.bulksms.com/eapi/code-samples/php/send_sms/

Answer 3

So then, i had to find a way around my own problem. if the API will not allow thousands of numbers at a time, then let's break it into chunks at the point of execution.
function curl_get_contents($url)
{
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
$data = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
return $data;
}
$how_many = count(explode(',', $numbers));
if ($how_many > 250){
$swi = range(0, ceil($how_many/250)-1);
foreach ($swi as $sw){$numbers_a = implode(',', (array_slice(explode(',', $numbers), $sw*250, 250)));
$api = "http://www.estoresms.com/smsapi.php?username=".$sms_user."&password=".$sms_pwd."&sender=".$sender_id."&recipient=".$numbers_a."&message=".$text."&";
$send_it = curl_get_contents($api);
}
}
if ($how_many <= 250){
$api = "http://www.estoresms.com/smsapi.php?username=".$sms_user."&password=".$sms_pwd."&sender=".$sender_id."&recipient=".$numbers."&message=".$text."&";
$send_it = curl_get_contents($api);
}