paypal MALFORMED REQUEST error in curl - php

Question

I am facing MALFORMED_REQUEST in paypal API
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,"https://api.sandbox.paypal.com/v1/payments/payment");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "{
\"intent\":\"authorize\",
\"payer\":{
\"payment_method\":\"credit_card\",
\"funding_instruments\":[{
\"credit_card\":{
\"number\":\"5555555555554444\",
\"type\":\"mastercard\",
\"expire_month\":07,
\"expire_year\":22,
\"cvv2\":123,
\"first_name\":\"FName\",
\"last_name\":\"Lname\",
\"billing_address\":{
\"line1\":\"address,\",
\"city\":\"City\",
\"state\":\"state\",
\"postal_code\":\"postal_code\",
\"country_code\":\"country_code\"
}
}
}]
},
\"transactions\":[{
\"amount\":{
\"total\":\"10\",
\"currency\":\"CAD\",
\"details\":{
\"subtotal\":\"10\",
\"tax\":\"0\",
\"shipping\":\"0\"
}
}
}]}");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
$headers = array();
$headers[] = "Content-Type: application/json";
$headers[] = "Authorization: Bearer myAccessToken";
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
if (curl_errno($ch)) {
echo 'Error:' . curl_error($ch);
}
curl_close($ch);
Here I am calling curl for authorization with paypal
jsonlint.com shows this json format is ok
But still I am getting response like,
{"name":"MALFORMED_REQUEST","message":"The request JSON is not well formed.","information_link":"https://developer.paypal.com/webapps/developer/docs/api/#MALFORMED_REQUEST","debug_id":"9d7454a8637ae"}
Not getting exactly where I am wrong? Does any one know? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Your problem is the 07 in "expire_month": 07. I assume this value is meant to be a string. Not sure what you pasted in to jsonlint but it wasn't the JSON in your question.
As indicated in the comments, don't roll your own JSON. Use the tools available
$data = [
'intent' => 'authorize',
'payer' => [
'payment_method' => 'credit_card',
'funding_instruments' => [[
'credit_card' => [
'number' => '5555555555554444',
'type' => 'mastercard',
'expire_month' => '07',
'expire_year' => '22',
'hopefully you get the idea' => 'by now'
]
]]
]
];
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($data));

Answer 2

As the error indicates, your JSON is not formed correctly.You need not pass \ to escape your request parameters . Try removing those or try this sample code which works out of the box.
<?php
$data = 'response_type=token&grant_type=client_credentials';
$headers_arr = array();
$headers_arr[]="Accept-Encoding:application/json;charset=utf-8";
$headers_arr[]="Accept-Language:en_US";
// $headers_arr[]="Authorization:Bearer AZHFuBBAIG1rP98P7Svn2WOVatM5KAllu6KvrTE8GGT4gt9vdfj8TtR_1Cer:EBTMERCurtbf_4auykCeGWYGvwsy147bSb3xCuYpohmouVBGTaYFUIRwWgbx";
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://api.sandbox.paypal.com/v1/oauth2/token");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);// this is used to bypass the SSL protocol, not recommended.
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, FALSE);// this is used to bypass the SSL protocol, not recommended.
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 45);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "ARLg-BBMeTGLU5IHCsdIKEC_R_sMAkWM-yLsI5W5u9RuhvNhgolhYv-1cWmr:EJdAYxDx29McgMKOWjGK1OLHyaIxQBRuV9sWgfFSeMKGVBe-1jdiNgv5TLtP");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers_arr);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
$res = json_decode($result);
$access_token = $res->access_token;
//now create a paypal payment
$headers_arr = array();
$headers_arr[]="Content-Type:application/json;charset=utf-8";
$headers_arr[] = "Authorization: Bearer $access_token";
// echo '<pre>';
// print_r($headers_arr);
$data_string = '{
"intent":"authorize",
"payer":{
"payment_method":"credit_card",
"funding_instruments":[
{
"credit_card":{
"number":"4446283285273500",
"type":"visa",
"expire_month":11,
"expire_year":2018,
"cvv2":"874",
"first_name":"Betsy",
"last_name":"Buyer",
"billing_address":{
"line1":"111 First Street",
"city":"Saratoga",
"state":"CA",
"postal_code":"95070",
"country_code":"US"
}
}
}
]
},
"transactions":[
{
"amount":{
"total":"7.47",
"currency":"USD",
"details":{
"subtotal":"7.41",
"tax":"0.03",
"shipping":"0.03"
}
},
"description":"This is the payment transaction description."
}
]
}';
// echo data_string;
$chs = curl_init();
curl_setopt($chs, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://api.sandbox.paypal.com/v1/payments/payment');
curl_setopt($chs, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($chs, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data_string);
curl_setopt($chs, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
curl_setopt($chs, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, FALSE);
curl_setopt($chs, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 45);
curl_setopt($chs, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($chs, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($chs, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers_arr);
if(curl_exec($chs) === false)
{
echo 'Curl error: ' . curl_error($chs);
}
$results = curl_exec($chs);
$res = json_decode($results);
echo 'ress=<pre>';
print_r($results);