Inserting data by sending PUT request in CodeIgniter (Phil Sturgeon Rest Server) - php

Question

There is a difference between a PUT and POST request I send through a REST CLIENT in my API. It is implemented in CodeIgniter with Phil Sturgeon's REST server.
function station_put(){
$data = array(
'name' => $this->input->post('name'),
'number' => $this->input->post('number'),
'longitude' => $this->input->post('longitude'),
'lat' => $this->input->post('latitude'),
'typecode' => $this->input->post('typecode'),
'description' => $this->input->post('description'),
'height' => $this->input->post('height'),
'mult' => $this->input->post('mult'),
'exp' => $this->input->post('exp'),
'elevation' => $this->input->post('elevation')
);
$id_returned = $this->station_model->add_station($data);
$this->response(array('id'=>$id_returned,'message'=>"Successfully created."),201);
}
this request successfully inserts data into the server BUT - it renders the rest of the values NULL except for the id.
But if you change the function name into station_post, it inserts the data correctly.
Would somebody please point out why the PUT request does not work? I am using the latest version of google chrome.
Btw this API will be integrated to a BackBone handled app. Do I really need to use PUT? Or is there another workaround with the model saving function in backbone when using post?

Answer 1

Finally answered. Instead of $this->input->post or $this->input->put, it must be $this->put or $this->post because the data is not coming from a form.

Answer 2

Codeigniter put_stream also failing to fetch put data, therefore I had to handle php PUT request and I found this function useful enough to save someone's time:
function parsePutRequest()
{
// Fetch content and determine boundary
$raw_data = file_get_contents('php://input');
$boundary = substr($raw_data, 0, strpos($raw_data, "\r\n"));
// Fetch each part
$parts = array_slice(explode($boundary, $raw_data), 1);
$data = array();
foreach ($parts as $part) {
// If this is the last part, break
if ($part == "--\r\n") break;
// Separate content from headers
$part = ltrim($part, "\r\n");
list($raw_headers, $body) = explode("\r\n\r\n", $part, 2);
// Parse the headers list
$raw_headers = explode("\r\n", $raw_headers);
$headers = array();
foreach ($raw_headers as $header) {
list($name, $value) = explode(':', $header);
$headers[strtolower($name)] = ltrim($value, ' ');
}
// Parse the Content-Disposition to get the field name, etc.
if (isset($headers['content-disposition'])) {
$filename = null;
preg_match(
'/^(.+); *name="([^"]+)"(; *filename="([^"]+)")?/',
$headers['content-disposition'],
$matches
);
list(, $type, $name) = $matches;
isset($matches[4]) and $filename = $matches[4];
// handle your fields here
switch ($name) {
// this is a file upload
case 'userfile':
file_put_contents($filename, $body);
break;
// default for all other files is to populate $data
default:
$data[$name] = substr($body, 0, strlen($body) - 2);
break;
}
}
}
return $data;
}