Google QPX Express API PHP - php

Question

I'm trying to use QPX Express API for my website to search for flights.
https://developers.google.com/qpx-express/v1/requests#Examples
I have no idea how to run
curl -d #request.json --header "Content-Type: application/json" https://www.googleapis.com/qpxExpress/v1/trips/search?key=xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
from my php file. And how should I manage the json file. I quess I should make a php file and set the header type, am I correct?
I could not find anything from anywhere

Answer 1

You do not need to create and save an actual JSON file for each request. You can simply create a JSON string and send that as the POST payload. As far as executing the curl, you should see the native functions available in the PHP Manual. Specifically, curl_init(), curl_setopt(), and curl_exec(). Here's an example...
$url = "https://www.googleapis.com/qpxExpress/v1/trips/search?key=YOUR_API_KEY_HERE";
$postData = '{
"request": {
"passengers": {
"adultCount": 1
},
"slice": [
{
"origin": "BOS",
"destination": "LAX",
"date": "2016-05-10"
},
{
"origin": "LAX",
"destination": "BOS",
"date": "2016-05-15"
}
]
}
}';
$curlConnection = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curlConnection, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array("Content-Type: application/json"));
curl_setopt($curlConnection, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($curlConnection, CURLOPT_POST, TRUE);
curl_setopt($curlConnection, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $postData);
curl_setopt($curlConnection, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, TRUE);
curl_setopt($curlConnection, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($curlConnection, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);
$results = curl_exec($curlConnection);
You could also use an array to create the payload, and then use json_encode() to convert it into a JSON string.
$postData = array(
"request" => array(
"passengers" => array(
"adultCount" => 1
),
"slice" => array(
array(
"origin" => "BOS",
"destination" => "LAX",
"date" => "2016-05-10"
),
array(
"origin" => "LAX",
"destination" => "BOS",
"date" => "2016-05-15"
)
)
)
);
And then use
curl_setopt($curlConnection, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($postData));