PHP Http Post request with json response: no valid json - php

Question

If I send the following request to an API, it says, that I use no valid JSON string. How can I transform my JSON in a valid PHP post request? I'm using guzzle:
$client = new Client();
$res = $client->request('POST', 'https://fghfgh', [
'auth' => ['user', 'pw']
]);
$res->getStatusCode();
$res->getHeader('application/json');
$res->getBody('{
"category": "ETW",
"date": "2017-03-02",
"address": {
"nation": "DE",
"street": "abc",
"house_number": "7",
"zip": "80637",
"town": "München"
},
"construction_year": "1932",
"living_area": "117.90",
"elevator": false,
"garages": false
}');

Answer 1

as mentioned in the documentation
you need to pass the required headers to your response object as follows:
$res = $client->request('POST', 'https://fghfgh', [
'auth' => ['user', 'pw'],
'headers' => [
'Content-Type' => 'application/json',
'Accept' => 'application/json',
]
]);

Answer 2

When I let php decode the json it won't give any errors, so the first thing that comes into mind is the München having an umlaut. What happens if you try this without using the umlaut?
Having said that, I recommend you using an PHP array and encoding that into a json string instead of just typing the json string. This is because PHP can check the syntax for the array and you know whether it's right or wrong immediately. If option A doesn't work, this might fix your problem instead.
It would look like this:
$data = [
'category' => 'ETW',
'date' => '2017-03-02',
'address' => [
'nation' => 'DE',
'street' => 'abc',
'house_number' => 7,
'zip' => '80637',
'town' => 'Munchen'
],
'construction_year' => 1932,
'living_area' => '117.90',
'elevator' => false,
'garages' => false,
];
$res->getBody(json_encode($data));

Answer 3

Looks to me like you should be using the json option if your intention is to POST JSON data
$client->post('https://fghfgh', [
'auth' => ['user', 'pw'],
'json' => [
'category' => 'ETW',
'date' => '2017-03-02',
'address' => [
'nation' => 'DE',
'street' => 'abc',
'house_number' => '7',
'zip' => '80637',
'town' => 'München'
],
'construction_year' => '1932',
'living_area' => '117.90',
'elevator' => false,
'garages' => false,
]
]);