Posting data using Curl in XML Format - php

Question

Currently post my data in HTTP Post format and i need to post it in XML and add the header.
This is how i currently post my data.
//extract data from the post
extract($_POST);
//set POST variables
$url = 'https://test.com/checklead';
$fields = array(
'surname' => urlencode($surname),
'first_name' => urlencode($first_name),
'dob' => urlencode($dob),
'email' => urlencode($email),
'home_phone' => urlencode($home_phone),
'mobile_phone' => urlencode($mobile_phone),
'work_phone' => urlencode($work_phone),
'postcode' => urlencode($postcode),
'leadid' => urlencode(123),
'affid' => urlencode(123),
'subid' => urlencode(123),
'bank_acno' => urlencode($bank_acno),
'bank_sort' => urlencode($bank_sort),
'amount_required' => urlencode($amount_required),
);
//url-ify the data for the POST
foreach($fields as $key=>$value) { $fields_string .= $key.'='.$value.'&'; }
rtrim($fields_string, '&');
//open connection
$ch = curl_init();
//set the url, number of POST vars, POST data
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST, count($fields));
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $fields_string);
//execute post
$result = curl_exec($ch);
//close connection
curl_close($ch);
How do i post this in XML Format and add a Header : http://www.header.com

Answer 1

You've not set Content-Type.
Try something along the lines of :
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-Type: text/xml'));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "$xml");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(
'Header1: my_header_value'
));
$output = curl_exec($ch);
or you could look at using a library such as Guzzle which does a lot of the error handling etc for you.