Freebase API works in browser but not in PHP - php

Question

This question is similar to: Freebase API call works in browser but fails with curl but no answers there.
I have this URL that works in the browser:
https://www.googleapis.com/freebase/v1/search?query=Cee+Lo+Green&filter=%28all+type%3A%2Fmusic%2Fartist+created%3A%22The+Lady+Killer%22%29&limit=10&key=my_key_here
Returns:
{"status":"200 OK","result":[{"mid":"/m/01w5jwb","id":"/en/cee_lo_1974","name":"Cee Lo Green","notable":{"name":"Singer-songwriter","id":"/m/016z4k"},"lang":"en","score":814.733643}],"cost":6,"hits":2}
However, in PHP, the following code doesn't work:
<?php
namespace com\voting;
class Freebase{
public function query(){
$service_url = 'https://www.googleapis.com/freebase/v1/search';
$params = array(
'query' => 'Cee Lo Green',
'filter' => '(all type:/music/artist created:"The Lady Killer")',
'limit' => 10,
'key' => API_KEY );
$url = $service_url . '?' . http_build_query($params);
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
$response = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true);
curl_close($ch);
return $response;
}
}
?>
A dump of curl, gives this:
array (size=22)
'url' => string 'https://www.googleapis.com/freebase/v1/search?query=Cee+Lo+Green&filter=%28all+type%3A%2Fmusic%2Fartist+created%3A%22The+Lady+Killer%22%29&limit=10&key=my_key_here' (length=191)
'content_type' => null
'http_code' => int 0
'header_size' => int 0
'request_size' => int 0
'filetime' => int -1
'ssl_verify_result' => int 0
'redirect_count' => int 0
'total_time' => float 0.047
'namelookup_time' => float 0
'connect_time' => float 0.063
'pretransfer_time' => float 0
'size_upload' => float 0
'size_download' => float 0
'speed_download' => float 0
'speed_upload' => float 0
'download_content_length' => float -1
'upload_content_length' => float -1
'starttransfer_time' => float 0
'redirect_time' => float 0
'certinfo' =>
array (size=0)
empty
'redirect_url' => string '' (length=0)
I thought maybe a connectivity issue, but I tried a regular http URL and curl showed that it was able to get the content of the page.
Update 1
I should have done my homework before posting. With Wireshark, I can see the following text:
Alert Message
Level: Fatal (2)
Description: Unknown CA (48)
Is my setup improperly configured?

Answer 1

Thanks, in just a script:
<?php
$service_url = 'https://www.googleapis.com/freebase/v1/search';
$params = array(
'query' => 'Cee Lo Green',
'filter' => '(all type:/music/artist created:"The Lady Killer")',
'limit' => 10,
'key' => API_KEY );
$url = $service_url . '?' . http_build_query($params);
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
//WARNING: this would prevent curl from detecting a 'man in the middle' attack
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
$response = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true);
curl_close($ch);
return $response;
?>

Answer 2

This answer solved it for me:
HTTPS and SSL3_GET_SERVER_CERTIFICATE:certificate verify failed, CA is OK
Final solution:
<?php
namespace com\voting;
class Freebase{
public function query(){
$service_url = 'https://www.googleapis.com/freebase/v1/search';
$params = array(
'query' => 'Cee Lo Green',
'filter' => '(all type:/music/artist created:"The Lady Killer")',
'limit' => 10,
'key' => API_KEY );
$url = $service_url . '?' . http_build_query($params);
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
//WARNING: this would prevent curl from detecting a 'man in the middle' attack
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
$response = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true);
curl_close($ch);
return $response;
}
}
?>