PHP cURL is it possible to pass a multi-associative array? - php

Question

Is it possible to send a multi-associative array to a page using cURL in php?
I am able to pass an array, but the following happens:
// Open Connection
$ch = curl_init();
// Set the URL
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $this->config['submission']['eyerys']);
// Set the number of fields being sent:
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST,count($this->call['info']));
// The string to send:
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,$string);
// Return transfer:
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
// SSL verification:
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
// Execute the post:
$result = curl_exec($ch);
$this->pre($result);
// Close connection:
$curl_close($ch);
I get the following output:
Array
(
[info] => Array
[answers] => Array
[errors] => Array
)

Answer 1

Nope, since curl cannot know how you want to encode it. Not every server-side language/framework uses the same way. I think PHP is the only language where the user can create an array by simply sending data with keys containing []. For example. in the python world one would just send the same value twice and then use a different function (such as .getlist('key') - depends on the framework though) to access the array instead of just a single value.
If you have control over the remote script, consider using something standardized such as JSON. Instead of sending a formencoded POST string either send a pure JSON body or a single formencoded POST value containing the JSON.
If you don't, you'll most likely have to encode the POST data on your own.