Google Tracks API "Bad Request" using PHP - php

Question

I am using Google Tracks API to build a simple web based program to track a vehicle that has a tracking device sending latitude and longitude coordinates.
I am using PHP and the OAuth2 PHP library to make an authorized connection.
After authorizing and getting an access token I am making a request to create entities. Though I can't seem to get this working and keep getting a "400 Bad Request" response. Following all the steps shown in the documentation.
Here is my code:
$url = 'https://www.googleapis.com/tracks/v1/entities/create/?access_token='.$parsedAuth['access_token'];
$data = array('entities' => array( "name"=> "Chevrolet" ));
$json_data = json_encode($data);
$data_length = http_build_query($data);
$options = array(
'http' => array(
'header' => "Content-type: application/json\r\n". "Content-Length: " . strlen($data_length) . "\r\n",
'method' => 'POST',
'content' => $json_data
),
);
$context = stream_context_create($options);
$response = file_get_contents($url, false, $context);
var_dump($response);
Exact Error is: "failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 400 Bad Request"
Why am I getting a bad request? What would be a good request that will register these entities and return id's?
Thank you

Answer 1

The answer given here is wrong. The documentation states that it must be a POST see here My issue was not with the Auth but with the Tracks API itself. I ended up moving to create the request with CURL and it works just fine.

Answer 2

Please. This is PHP with CURL. It works 100%.
//Google maps tracks connection
//Get Files From PHP Library
require_once 'google-api-php-client/src/Google/autoload.php';
require_once 'google-api-php-client/src/Google/Service/MapsEngine.php';
//Set Client Credentials
$client_id = '*************.apps.googleusercontent.com'; //Client ID
$service_account_name = '************#developer.gserviceaccount.com'; //Email Address
$client_email = '*************#developer.gserviceaccount.com';
$private_key = file_get_contents('************.p12');
$scopes = array('https://www.googleapis.com/auth/tracks');
//Create Client
$client = new Google_Client();
$client->setApplicationName("Client_Library_Examples");
//Send Credentials
$credentials = new Google_Auth_AssertionCredentials(
$client_email,
$scopes,
$private_key
);
$client->setAssertionCredentials($credentials);
if ($client->getAuth()->isAccessTokenExpired()) {
$client->getAuth()->refreshTokenWithAssertion($credentials);
}
if (isset($_SESSION['service_token'])) {
$client->setAccessToken($_SESSION['service_token']);
}
$client->setAssertionCredentials($credentials);
$_SESSION['service_token'] = $client->getAccessToken();
foreach ($_SESSION as $key=> $value) {
$vars = json_decode($value);
}
$parsedAuth = (array) $vars;
$token = $parsedAuth['access_token'];
//all functions in the program use this auth token- It should be global for easy accesses.
global $token;
function createEntities(){
global $token;
$url = 'https://www.googleapis.com/tracks/v1/entities/create/?access_token='.$token;
//FIX ME: fields is temporarily hard coded- should be brought from DB
$fields = array(
'entities' => array(
'name' => "DemoTruck",
'type' => "AUTOMOBILE"
),
);
//json string the data for the POST
$query_string = '';
foreach($fields as $key => $array) {
$query_string .= '{"' . urlencode($key).'":[{';
foreach($array as $k => $v) {
$query_string .= '"' . urlencode($k) . '":"' . urlencode($v) . '",';
}
}
$str = rtrim($query_string , ',');
$fstr = $str.'}]}';
$length = strlen( $fstr );
//open connection
$ch = curl_init();
//test connection
if (FALSE === $ch)
throw new Exception('failed to initialize');
//set options
$header = array('Content-type: application/json');
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $header);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $fstr);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
//dump in case of error
if (FALSE === $result){
var_dump( curl_error($ch) );
var_dump( curl_getinfo($ch) );
}
//close connection
curl_close($ch);
}