PHP Curl results into invalid json - php

Question

I want to send json data via PUT to a REST service using the following php code:
$data = '{"api_key":"my-api-key","post":{"exception":["2015-04-10T11:09:51+00:00 ERR (3):\\nexception 'Exception' with message 'a simple exception' in \/private\/var\/www\/index.php:1\\nStack trace:\\n#0 {main}"],"access":["::1 - - [10\/Apr\/2015:13:08:17 +0200] \"GET \/index.php HTTP\/1.1\" 200 19039"]}}';
$curl = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "PUT");
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(
'Content-Type: application/json',
'Content-Length: ' . strlen($data))
);
$response = curl_exec($curl);
As you can see I send valid json (validated by http://jsonlint.com/). On the side of the service I get the following json:
{"api_key":"my-api-key","post":{"exception":["2015-04-10T11:09:51+00:00 ERR (3):\\\\nexception \'Exception\' with message \'a simple exception\' in \\/private\\/var\\/www\\/index.php:1\\\\nStack trace:\\\\n#0 {main}"],"access":["::1 - - [10\\/Apr\\/2015:13:08:17 +0200] \\"GET \\/index.php HTTP\\/1.1\\" 200 19039"]}}
Validating this says I got a parse error. And this seems correct as I can't understand why further escaping is done like \\\\n. What am I doing wrong here?

Answer 1

I doubt that this is a valid use of a PUT and should be a POST but that is just a technicality. If you can, make it a POST. The PUT is likely the root of the issue.
The CURLOPT_PUT uses CURLOPT_INFILE and CURLOPT_INFILESIZE
The URLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST should work fine but it appears you have some RFC 3986 escaping going on for some unexplainable reason.
You may want to use rawurldecode ( ) on the Service Side.
This will give you (appears correct but I'm not the guy to verify):
{"api_key":"my-api-key","post":{"exception":["2015-04-10T11:09:51+00:00 ERR (3):\\nexception 'Exception' with message 'a simple exception' in \/private\/var\/www\/index.php:1\\nStack trace:\\n#0 {main}"],"access":["::1 - - [10\/Apr\/2015:13:08:17 +0200] \"GET \/index.php HTTP\/1.1\" 200 19039"]}}
Disclaimer: I have never used curl to POST Content-Type: application/json data.
You need to look at your Request Header and maybe Response. It would be interesting to see if you get the proper PUT Response.
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLINFO_HEADER_OUT, true);
Check your Request Header Content-Type
To get the headers:
The response Header will be in the returned transfer.
The Request Header will be in curl_getinfo()
The curl info will also include the HTTP Response Status. Which for a PUT should be 201 or 301 but not important.
$data = curl_exec($ch);
$skip = intval(curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HEADER_SIZE));
$responseHeader = substr($data,0,$skip);
$data= substr($data,$skip);
$info = var_export(curl_getinfo($ch),true);
echo $responseHeader . $info . $data;
If you still want to send the json without curl escaping it I have some thoughts on that. but there is probably a post on that subject here somewhere.