Using CURL to post JSON with PHP variables - php

Question

I'm trying to set up account creation via a payment form on my website using ZenDesk's API. The example code they give is:
curl -v -u {email_address}:{password} https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com/api/v2/users.json \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST -d '{"user": {"name": "Roger Wilco", "email": "roge#example.org"}}'
Since I need to include PHP variables, I'm trying to use this:
$data = array("name" => $entry["1"], "email" => $entry["3"], "role" => "end-user");
$data_string = json_encode($data);
$ch = curl_init('https://xxxx.zendesk.com/api/v2/users.json');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "xxxx#example.com:xxxx");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "POST");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data_string);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(
'Content-Type: application/json',
'Content-Length: ' . strlen($data_string))
);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
However, it's not working. Is my code correct in terms of duplicating the function of the first snippet?

Answer 1

I found another example of ZenDesk's API and was able to come up with this:
<?PHP
define("ZDAPIKEY", "SECRETKEYGOESHERE");
define("ZDUSER", "me#mysite.com");
define("ZDURL", "https://mysite.zendesk.com/api/v2");
/* Note: do not put a trailing slash at the end of v2 */
function curlWrap($url, $json, $action)
{
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS, 10 );
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, ZDURL.$url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, ZDUSER."/token:".ZDAPIKEY);
switch($action){
case "POST":
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "POST");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $json);
break;
case "GET":
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "GET");
break;
case "PUT":
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "PUT");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $json);
default:
break;
}
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-type: application/json'));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, "MozillaXYZ/1.0");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 10);
$output = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
$decoded = json_decode($output);
return $decoded;
}
$arr = array("z_name"=>$namevariable,
"z_email"=>$emailvariable,
"z_role"=>"end_user",
"z_verified"=>"yes"
);
$create = json_encode(array('user' => array('name' => $arr['z_name'], 'email' => $arr['z_email'], 'role' => $arr['z_role'])), JSON_FORCE_OBJECT);
$data = curlWrap("/users.json", $create, "POST");
var_dump($data);
?>
It appears to be working on its own, so this answers the question as it exists here.
Thanks for your help everyone :)

Answer 2

I know the question is answered, but since I found it while having the same issue and since it did not solve my issue, I figured I'd post what I did. Hopefully, it can help someone else.
Here is the combination that worked for me in a case where I had to submit json data via PUT:
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FRESH_CONNECT, TRUE);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 90);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $json);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-type: application/json', 'Content-Length: ' . strlen($json), 'X-HTTP-Method-Override: PUT'));
Note that it does NOT require CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST or CURLOPT_PUT since the X-HTTP-Method-Override: PUT parameter takes care of that.