MSXML2.XMLHTTP send data to PHP script - php

Question

I have been looking into an option to send data read from an attached file in an Outlook message, directly to a PHP script that will then insert the date in a nice MySQL database.
The extraction of the file and the splitting of data all ok, but here is the trick...
From the internet (here) I found a nice post by Jeremy Slade who has managed to send some data to a cgi scipt, all good.
So, clever as I thought I was, I thought I could re-write this into dealing with a PHP script.
But then the works stopped.
I have shortened the code to below snippet;
Sub TestURL()
Set xhr = CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")
URL = "http://somedomain.com/php/test.php"
data = "someVariable=Test"
With xhr
.Open "POST", URL, False
.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
.Send data
End With
End Sub
This should, in theory, open a MSXML2.XMLHTTP request at the given URL and send whatever data with it to the script.
Funny enough, the script is called, but no data is passed ?
I've tried setting the PHP script to both $_GET and $_POST for the [someVariable] element, yet on neither is there any response ?
When I set the PHP to $_GET I matched the VBA MSXML2.XMLHTTP object to "GET" as well and vice versa...
I've tried passing the 'data' variable as argument to the 'function' .send by including it in brackets
i.e.
.send (data)
But this doesn't work either...
I'm a bit at a loss, because the script is called, a dataline is added to the table yet there is not an actual transfer of the 'sent' data ??
I've tried connecting the data string to the URL that is passed to the HTTP object, essentially passing a 'GET' URL to the HTTP object.
i.e.
URL = URL & "?" & data
but to no avail...:-(
The php script works in itself properly, if I pass data directly from the browser
i.e.
http://somedomain.com/php/test.php?someVariable=Test
the data is correctly added and the variable is read...
Can some more enlightened spirits guide me in the right direction ?
20141016 ********** UPDATE **********
Ok, when digging into stuff I found there is also an option to refer to the XmlHttp object as "Microsoft.XmlHttp" ?
Funny enough, when setting the object like that,
i.e.
Set xhr = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP")
The code works and the data is added to the table and the .responsText is a success message.
Yet if I return to the original code, I get a PHP error message that tells me that there is an error in my PHP syntax ?? This would imply that the actual 'data' that is being send differs between using "MSXML2.XMLHTTP" and using "Microsoft.XMLHTTP" ???
Have tried to dig out the difference between the two from internet but can't find any post that provides me with a full understanding of the subject ?
Despite the fact that my code now works, I still have the bothering question of not understanding the difference between the two and would appreciate a reply from someone who does :-) As I now have a code that works, but not an understanding of why it works...:-)
Or mroeover not an understanding of why the "MSXML2" option does NOT work...
Much appreciated,
Kindest regards
Martijn

Answer 1

This is not exactly an answer but more like a comment as I lack enough reputation to comment.
The issue can be analyzed using Fiddler which provides details of the requests and responses. I checked the same code as yours in my system with both MSXML2.XMLHTTP and Mirosoft.XMLHTTP objects and found no difference in teh requests. Both of them passed the POST request body containing someVariable=Test to the URL http://somedomain.com/php/test.php.
Here is the raw POST request in both cases:
POST http://somedomain.com/php/test.php HTTP/1.1
Accept: */*
Accept-Language: en-us
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/5.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET4.0C; .NET4.0E; MS-RTC LM 8)
Host: somedomain.com
Content-Length: 17
Proxy-Connection: Keep-Alive
Pragma: no-cache
someVariable=Test
And the response from the sample URL provided:
HTTP/1.1 405 Method Not Allowed
Server: nginx/1.7.6
Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 15:23:58 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
via: HTTP/1.1 proxy226
Connection: close
<html>
<head><title>405 Not Allowed</title></head>
<body bgcolor="white">
<center><h1>405 Not Allowed</h1></center>
<hr><center>nginx/1.7.6</center>
</body>
</html>
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One question here would be whether the web server in question is expecting further data to be passed by the way of headers (User-Agent, Referer, Cookies etc) or as part of the request body (may be further input elements that are part of the webform)?