Can Slim PHP make request to other services? - php

Question

I'm currently building an AngularJS application with a PHP backend. The routing is done using Slim PHP and I've found an AngularJs module to do token-based authentication. In the module example for the backend they use Laravel and a client called GuzzleHttp\Client(). Now, I'm not sure what GuzzleHttp do that Slim PHP don't (if any) but I'm trying to follow along their example but I don't want to install 2 frameworks that could essentially do the same thing.
So I have my routing done so that when a request is made to the backend (auth/google) it'll do this:
public function google()
{
$app = \Slim\Slim::getInstance();
$request = $app->request()->getBody();
$body = json_decode($request);
$accessTokenUrl = 'https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token';
$peopleApiUrl = 'https://www.googleapis.com/plus/v1/people/me/openIdConnect';
$params = array(
'code' => $body->code,
'client_id' => $body->clientId,
'redirect_uri' => $body->redirectUri,
'grant_type' => 'authorization_code',
'client_secret' => GOOGLE_SECRET
);
$client = new GuzzleHttp\Client();
// Step 1. Exchange authorization code for access token.
$accessTokenResponse = $client->post($accessTokenUrl, ['body' => $params]);
$accessToken = $accessTokenResponse->json()['access_token'];
$headers = array('Authorization' => 'Bearer ' . $accessToken);
// Step 2. Retrieve profile information about the current user.
$profileResponse = $client->get($peopleApiUrl, ['headers' => $headers]);
$profile = $profileResponse->json();
// Step 3a. If user is already signed in then link accounts.
if (Request::header('Authorization'))
{
$user = User::where('google', '=', $profile['sub']);
if ($user->first())
{
return Response::json(array('message' => 'There is already a Google account that belongs to you'), 409);
}
$token = explode(' ', Request::header('Authorization'))[1];
$payloadObject = JWT::decode($token, Config::get('secrets.TOKEN_SECRET'));
$payload = json_decode(json_encode($payloadObject), true);
$user = User::find($payload['sub']);
$user->google = $profile['sub'];
$user->displayName = $user->displayName || $profile['name'];
$user->save();
return Response::json(array('token' => $this->createToken($user)));
}
// Step 3b. Create a new user account or return an existing one.
else
{
$user = User::where('google', '=', $profile['sub']);
if ($user->first())
{
return Response::json(array('token' => $this->createToken($user->first())));
}
$user = new User;
$user->google = $profile['sub'];
$user->displayName = $profile['name'];
$user->save();
return Response::json(array('token' => $this->createToken($user)));
}
}
Now this won't work because I don't have GuzzleHttp installed but my question is: can I do this in Slim PHP or do I need GuzzleHttp to complement it?

Answer 1

Guzzle is a code based HTTP client package/framework which also contains DOM crawling functionality not a micro-framework, thus it is not analogous to Slim.
From their Readme:
Guzzle is a PHP HTTP client that makes it easy to send HTTP requests and trivial to integrate with web services.
Slim does not provide this functionality directly because it doesnt fall under what Slim is meant to do which is transform HTTP requests into HTTP responses (and the core things that need to happen in between).
Since your example is in Guzzle and it implements what you are trying to do i would probably use Guzzle. However, you could do the same types of thing (ie. interact with an external web service) using cURL, ext/http, or another HTTP client package. There are several.

Answer 2

Slim is a micro-framework that provides basically client requests and responses, coming from the application. It means that Slim responds to request, it doesn't make requests to external HTTP, for instance. The idea of Slim is to provide routes, do stuff when it comes and responds to the client.
If you need to use external calls, you'll need to use any HTTP Client, that'll provide the "ability" to make requests and threat with the response. You can use curl natively (all the others are only "interfaces" to curl) or a lib.

Answer 3

While Slim and Guzzle have a lot in common ie they both deal with psr-7 requests and responses
There is one key difference
Slim Deals with processing requests and sending responses
Guzzle Deals with sending requests and processing responses
as such they are not interchangeable and deal with opposite ends of the communication pipeline
so if your processing requests that someone has sent to you you need slim or something similar
if you are sending requests to someone else then you need guzzle or something similar