PHP API getting empty JSON request in POST [duplicate] - php

Question

This question already has answers here:
Reading JSON POST using PHP
(3 answers)
Closed 7 years ago.
I am trying to develop small API code in php, which will send POST request in json format using PHP curl (from client side). And at receiving side(at server side) I want to parse the request and process it. but at receiving side it gives me empty array in post field.
Below is my code
Client side:
<?php
$data = array("name" => "Hagrid", "age" => "36");
$data_string = json_encode($data);
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "POST");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "xdata=".$data_string);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(
'Content-Type: application/json',
'Content-Length: ' . strlen($data_string))
);
echo $result = curl_exec($ch);
?>
At server side:
<?php
print_r($_POST);
?>
Blockquote
Array ( )
Blockquote
It always gives me empty POST array at server side.
Am I doing things wrong or is there another way to parse the request?
Please guide me.

Answer 1

You can use php://input read-only stream to access JSON post data instead of $_POST like this
<?php
$json = file_get_contents('php://input');
?>
It will give you POST data as is. You will be able to decode it using json_decode() later.
Example code -
<?php
$json = json_decode(file_get_contents('php://input'));
?>

Answer 2

You are setting wrong content length with the CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER header. Your overall post string is strlen("xdata=".$data_string) whereas you are using strlen($data_string).
Also, you are using application/x-www-form-urlencoded for posting, but mentioning the content type forcefully as application/json
So remove the following block from your code and you should be fine.
// Remove it
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(
'Content-Type: application/json',
'Content-Length: ' . strlen($data_string))
);