Sending Data Using Post Method Without Form - php

I want to send data to an API. The data include simple variables: username, password, email, etc.
The problem is that O want to send data to this using POST method. I searched this issue on Google, and everyone is saying to go for CURL.
What is CURL? Is it a function, script, API or what?
Is there any other way to do it?
I want to send something like this:
$username, $password to www.abc.com?username=$username&password=$password
Best Regards


By using this function you can send a post request with an optional number of
parameters. Just fill in the postdata array with key values pairs.
Example usage are provided.
<?php
function do_post_request($url, $postdata)
{
$content = "";
// Add post data to request.
foreach($postdata as $key => $value)
{
$content .= "{$key}={$value}&";
}
$params = array('http' => array(
'method' => 'POST',
'header' => 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
'content' => $content
));
$ctx = stream_context_create($params);
$fp = fopen($url, 'rb', false, $ctx);
if (!$fp) {
throw new Exception("Connection problem, {$php_errormsg}");
}
$response = #stream_get_contents($fp);
if ($response === false) {
throw new Exception("Response error, {$php_errormsg}");
}
return $response;
}
// Post variables.
$postdata = array(
'username' => 'value1',
'password' => 'value2',
'param3' => 'value3'
);
do_post_request("http://www.example.com", $postdata);
?>


Simply use: file_get_contents()
// building array of variables
$content = http_build_query(array(
'username' => 'value',
'password' => 'value'
));
// creating the context change POST to GET if that is relevant
$context = stream_context_create(array(
'http' => array(
'method' => 'POST',
'content' => $content, )));
$result = file_get_contents('http://www.example.com', null, $context);
//dumping the reuslt
var_dump($result);


cURL is a library "that allows you to connect and communicate to many different types of servers with many different types of protocols". So you can use cURL to send an HTTP POST request. Please read the PHP manual for detailed information: http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.curl.php
But cURL is not the only answer. You can use PHP Streams, or even connect to the webserver using socket functions and then generate your requests.
Personally I often use cURL because it's very flexible and you can work with cookies easily.


Php curl manual is a good starting point.
Following is an example of the usage of curl in php on Stackoverflow:
Send json post using php


The data set in an xml file:
$post="<?xml version="1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>
<message xmlns=\"url\" >
<username>".$username."</username>
<password>".$password."</password>
<status date=\"2010-11-05 14:44:10+02\"/>
<body content-type=\"text/plain\">Noobligatory text</body>
</message>";
$url = "a-url-to-send-the-data";
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,$url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FAILONERROR, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 6);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $post);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

Related

CURL_SETOPT_ARRAY Not working inside a function, but works alone [duplicate]

Can anyone show me how to do a PHP cURL with an HTTP POST?
I want to send data like this:
username=user1, password=passuser1, gender=1
To www.example.com
I expect the cURL to return a response like result=OK. Are there any examples?

<?php
//
// A very simple PHP example that sends a HTTP POST to a remote site
//
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,"http://www.example.com/tester.phtml");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,
"postvar1=value1&postvar2=value2&postvar3=value3");
// In real life you should use something like:
// curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,
// http_build_query(array('postvar1' => 'value1')));
// Receive server response ...
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$server_output = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
// Further processing ...
if ($server_output == "OK") { ... } else { ... }
?>

Procedural
// set post fields
$post = [
'username' => 'user1',
'password' => 'passuser1',
'gender' => 1,
];
$ch = curl_init('http://www.example.com');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $post);
// execute!
$response = curl_exec($ch);
// close the connection, release resources used
curl_close($ch);
// do anything you want with your response
var_dump($response);
Object oriented
<?php
// mutatis mutandis
namespace MyApp\Http;
class CurlPost
{
private $url;
private $options;
/**
* #param string $url Request URL
* #param array $options cURL options
*/
public function __construct($url, array $options = [])
{
$this->url = $url;
$this->options = $options;
}
/**
* Get the response
* #return string
* #throws \RuntimeException On cURL error
*/
public function __invoke(array $post)
{
$ch = \curl_init($this->url);
foreach ($this->options as $key => $val) {
\curl_setopt($ch, $key, $val);
}
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $post);
$response = \curl_exec($ch);
$error = \curl_error($ch);
$errno = \curl_errno($ch);
if (\is_resource($ch)) {
\curl_close($ch);
}
if (0 !== $errno) {
throw new \RuntimeException($error, $errno);
}
return $response;
}
}
Usage
// create curl object
$curl = new \MyApp\Http\CurlPost('http://www.example.com');
try {
// execute the request
echo $curl([
'username' => 'user1',
'password' => 'passuser1',
'gender' => 1,
]);
} catch (\RuntimeException $ex) {
// catch errors
die(sprintf('Http error %s with code %d', $ex->getMessage(), $ex->getCode()));
}
Side note here: it would be best to create some kind of interface called AdapterInterface for example with getResponse() method and let the class above implement it. Then you can always swap this implementation with another adapter of your like, without any side effects to your application.
Using HTTPS / encrypting traffic
Usually there's a problem with cURL in PHP under the Windows operating system. While trying to connect to a https protected endpoint, you will get an error telling you that certificate verify failed.
What most people do here is to tell the cURL library to simply ignore certificate errors and continue (curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);). As this will make your code work, you introduce huge security hole and enable malicious users to perform various attacks on your app like Man In The Middle attack or such.
Never, ever do that. Instead, you simply need to modify your php.ini and tell PHP where your CA Certificate file is to let it verify certificates correctly:
; modify the absolute path to the cacert.pem file
curl.cainfo=c:\php\cacert.pem
The latest cacert.pem can be downloaded from the Internet or extracted from your favorite browser. When changing any php.ini related settings remember to restart your webserver.

A live example of using php curl_exec to do an HTTP post:
Put this in a file called foobar.php:
<?php
$ch = curl_init();
$skipper = "luxury assault recreational vehicle";
$fields = array( 'penguins'=>$skipper, 'bestpony'=>'rainbowdash');
$postvars = '';
foreach($fields as $key=>$value) {
$postvars .= $key . "=" . $value . "&";
}
$url = "http://www.google.com";
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL,$url);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST, 1); //0 for a get request
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,$postvars);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT ,3);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 20);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
print "curl response is:" . $response;
curl_close ($ch);
?>
Then run it with the command php foobar.php, it dumps this kind of output to screen:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<title>Title</title>
<meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache">
<meta http-equiv="Expires" content="0">
<body>
A mountain of content...
</body>
</html>
So you did a PHP POST to www.google.com and sent it some data.
Had the server been programmed to read in the post variables, it could decide to do something different based upon that.

It's can be easily reached with:
<?php
$post = [
'username' => 'user1',
'password' => 'passuser1',
'gender' => 1,
];
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'http://www.domain.com');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query($post));
$response = curl_exec($ch);
var_export($response);

1.Step by step
Initialize the cURL session:
$url = "www.domain.com";
$ch = curl_init($url);
If your request has headers like bearer token or defining JSON contents you have to set HTTPHEADER options to cURL:
$token = "generated token code";
curl_setopt(
$ch,
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER,
array(
'Content-Type: application/json', // for define content type that is json
'bearer: '.$token, // send token in header request
'Content-length: 100' // content length for example 100 characters (can add by strlen($fields))
)
);
If you want to include the header in the output set CURLOPT_HEADER to true:
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
Set RETURNTRANSFER option to true to return the transfer as a string instead of outputting it directly:
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
To check the existence of a common name in the SSL peer certificate can be set to 0(to not check the names), 1(not supported in cURL 7.28.1), 2(default value and for production mode):
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 2);
For posting fields as an array by cURL:
$fields = array(
"username" => "user1",
"password" => "passuser1",
"gender" => 1
);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $fields);
Execute cURL and return the string. depending on your resource this returns output like result=OK:
$result = curl_exec($ch);
Close cURL resource, and free up system resources:
curl_close($ch);
2.Use as a class
The whole call_cURL class that can be extended:
class class_name_for_call_cURL {
protected function getUrl() {
return "www.domain.com";
}
public function call_cURL() {
$token = "generated token code";
$fields = array(
"username" => "user1",
"password" => "passuser1",
"gender" => 1
);
$url = $this->getUrl();
$output = $this->_execute($fields, $url, $token);
// if you want to get json data
// $output = json_decode($output);
if ($output == "OK") {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
private function _execute($postData, $url, $token) {
// for sending data as json type
$fields = json_encode($postData);
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt(
$ch,
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER,
array(
'Content-Type: application/json', // if the content type is json
'bearer: '.$token // if you need token in header
)
);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 2);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $fields);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
return $result;
}
}
Using the class and call cURL:
$class = new class_name_for_call_cURL();
var_dump($class->call_cURL()); // output is true/false
3.One function
A function for using anywhere that needed:
function get_cURL() {
$url = "www.domain.com";
$token = "generated token code";
$postData = array(
"username" => "user1",
"password" => "passuser1",
"gender" => 1
);
// for sending data as json type
$fields = json_encode($postData);
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt(
$ch,
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER,
array(
'Content-Type: application/json', // if the content type is json
'bearer: '.$token // if you need token in header
)
);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 2);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $fields);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
return $result;
}
This function is usable just by:
var_dump(get_cURL());

Curl Post + Error Handling + Set Headers [thanks to #mantas-d]:
function curlPost($url, $data=NULL, $headers = NULL) {
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
if(!empty($data)){
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
}
if (!empty($headers)) {
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
}
$response = curl_exec($ch);
if (curl_error($ch)) {
trigger_error('Curl Error:' . curl_error($ch));
}
curl_close($ch);
return $response;
}
curlPost('google.com', [
'username' => 'admin',
'password' => '12345',
]);

curlPost('google.com', [
'username' => 'admin',
'password' => '12345',
]);
function curlPost($url, $data) {
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
$error = curl_error($ch);
curl_close($ch);
if ($error !== '') {
throw new \Exception($error);
}
return $response;
}

I'm surprised nobody suggested file_get_contents:
$url = "http://www.example.com";
$parameters = array('username' => 'user1', 'password' => 'passuser1', 'gender' => '1');
$options = array('http' => array(
'header' => 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n',
'method' => 'POST',
'content' => http_build_query($parameters)
));
$context = stream_context_create($options);
$result = file_get_contents($url, false, $context);
it's simple, it works; I use it in an environment where I control the code at both ends.
even better, use json_decode (and set up your code to return JSON)
$result = json_decode(file_get_contents($url, false, $context), TRUE);
this approach invokes curl behind the scenes, but you don't jump through as many hoops.
Answer refined from this original answer elsewhere on Stack Overflow:
PHP sending variables to file_get_contents()

If the form is using redirects, authentication, cookies, SSL (https), or anything else other than a totally open script expecting POST variables, you are going to start gnashing your teeth really quick. Take a look at Snoopy, which does exactly what you have in mind while removing the need to set up a lot of the overhead.

A simpler answer IF you are passing information to your own website is to use a SESSION variable. Begin php page with:
session_start();
If at some point there is information you want to generate in PHP and pass to the next page in the session, instead of using a POST variable, assign it to a SESSION variable. Example:
$_SESSION['message']='www.'.$_GET['school'].'.edu was not found. Please try again.'
Then on the next page you simply reference this SESSION variable. NOTE: after you use it, be sure you destroy it, so it doesn't persist after it is used:
if (isset($_SESSION['message'])) {echo $_SESSION['message']; unset($_SESSION['message']);}

Here are some boilerplate code for PHP + curl
http://www.webbotsspidersscreenscrapers.com/DSP_download.php
include in these library will simplify development
<?php
# Initialization
include("LIB_http.php");
include("LIB_parse.php");
$product_array=array();
$product_count=0;
# Download the target (store) web page
$target = "http://www.tellmewhenitchanges.com/buyair";
$web_page = http_get($target, "");
...
?>

Examples of sending form and raw data:
$curlHandler = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/post',
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
/**
* Specify POST method
*/
CURLOPT_POST => true,
/**
* Specify array of form fields
*/
CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => [
'foo' => 'bar',
'baz' => 'biz',
],
]);
$response = curl_exec($curlHandler);
curl_close($curlHandler);
echo($response);

If you try to login on site with cookies.
This code:
if ($server_output == "OK") { ... } else { ... }
It May not works if you try to login, because many sites return status 200, but the post is not successful.
The easy way to check if the login post is successful is to check if it setting cookies again. If in output have a Set-Cookies string, this means the posts are not successful and it starts a new session.
Also, the post can be successful, but the status can redirect instead of 200.
To be sure the post is successful try this:
Follow location after the post, so it will go to the page where the post does redirect to:
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
And than check if new cookies existing in the request:
if (!preg_match('/^Set-Cookie:\s*([^;]*)/mi', $server_output))
{echo 'post successful'; }
else { echo 'not successful'; }

Easiest is to send data as application/json. This will take an array as input and properly encodes it into a json string:
$data = array(
'field1' => 'field1value',
'field2' => 'field2value',
)
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($data));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(
'Content-Type:application/json',
));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$resultStr = curl_exec($ch);
return json_decode($resultStr, true);

How to POST Request with PHP? [duplicate]

Actually I want to read the contents that come after the search query, when it is done. The problem is that the URL only accepts POST methods, and it does not take any action with GET method...
I have to read all contents with the help of domdocument or file_get_contents(). Is there any method that will let me send parameters with POST method and then read the contents via PHP?

CURL-less method with PHP5:
$url = 'http://server.com/path';
$data = array('key1' => 'value1', 'key2' => 'value2');
// use key 'http' even if you send the request to https://...
$options = array(
'http' => array(
'header' => "Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n",
'method' => 'POST',
'content' => http_build_query($data)
)
);
$context = stream_context_create($options);
$result = file_get_contents($url, false, $context);
if ($result === FALSE) { /* Handle error */ }
var_dump($result);
See the PHP manual for more information on the method and how to add headers, for example:
stream_context_create: http://php.net/manual/en/function.stream-context-create.php

You could use cURL:
<?php
//The url you wish to send the POST request to
$url = $file_name;
//The data you want to send via POST
$fields = [
'__VIEWSTATE ' => $state,
'__EVENTVALIDATION' => $valid,
'btnSubmit' => 'Submit'
];
//url-ify the data for the POST
$fields_string = http_build_query($fields);
//open connection
$ch = curl_init();
//set the url, number of POST vars, POST data
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $fields_string);
//So that curl_exec returns the contents of the cURL; rather than echoing it
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
//execute post
$result = curl_exec($ch);
echo $result;
?>

I use the following function to post data using curl. $data is an array of fields to post (will be correctly encoded using http_build_query()).
function httpPost($url, $data)
{
$curl = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query($data));
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response = curl_exec($curl);
curl_close($curl);
return $response;
}
#Edward mentions that http_build_query() may be omitted since curl will correctly encode array passed to CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS parameter, which is correct, but be advised that in this case the data will be encoded using multipart/form-data and it may not be desirable as some endpoints expect data to be encoded using application/x-www-form-urlencoded. When using http_build_query() as in the function above, data will be encoded with application/x-www-form-urlencoded.

I recommend you to use the open-source package guzzle that is fully unit tested and uses the latest coding practices.
Installing Guzzle
Go to the command line in your project folder and type in the following command (assuming you already have the package manager composer installed). If you need help how to install Composer, you should have a look here.
php composer.phar require guzzlehttp/guzzle
Using Guzzle to send a POST request
The usage of Guzzle is very straight forward as it uses a light-weight object-oriented API:
// Initialize Guzzle client
$client = new GuzzleHttp\Client();
// Create a POST request
$response = $client->request(
'POST',
'http://example.org/',
[
'form_params' => [
'key1' => 'value1',
'key2' => 'value2'
]
]
);
// Parse the response object, e.g. read the headers, body, etc.
$headers = $response->getHeaders();
$body = $response->getBody();
// Output headers and body for debugging purposes
var_dump($headers, $body);

I'd like to add some thoughts about the curl-based answer of Fred Tanrikut. I know most of them are already written in the answers above, but I think it is a good idea to show an answer that includes all of them together.
Here is the class I wrote to make HTTP-GET/POST/PUT/DELETE requests based on curl, concerning just about the response body:
class HTTPRequester {
/**
* #description Make HTTP-GET call
* #param $url
* #param array $params
* #return HTTP-Response body or an empty string if the request fails or is empty
*/
public static function HTTPGet($url, array $params) {
$query = http_build_query($params);
$ch = curl_init($url.'?'.$query);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
return $response;
}
/**
* #description Make HTTP-POST call
* #param $url
* #param array $params
* #return HTTP-Response body or an empty string if the request fails or is empty
*/
public static function HTTPPost($url, array $params) {
$query = http_build_query($params);
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $query);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
return $response;
}
/**
* #description Make HTTP-PUT call
* #param $url
* #param array $params
* #return HTTP-Response body or an empty string if the request fails or is empty
*/
public static function HTTPPut($url, array $params) {
$query = \http_build_query($params);
$ch = \curl_init();
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_URL, $url);
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, 'PUT');
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $query);
$response = \curl_exec($ch);
\curl_close($ch);
return $response;
}
/**
* #category Make HTTP-DELETE call
* #param $url
* #param array $params
* #return HTTP-Response body or an empty string if the request fails or is empty
*/
public static function HTTPDelete($url, array $params) {
$query = \http_build_query($params);
$ch = \curl_init();
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_URL, $url);
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, 'DELETE');
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $query);
$response = \curl_exec($ch);
\curl_close($ch);
return $response;
}
}
Improvements
Using http_build_query to get the query-string out of an request-array.(you could also use the array itself, therefore see: http://php.net/manual/en/function.curl-setopt.php)
Returning the response instead of echoing it. Btw you can avoid the returning by removing the line curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);. After that the return value is a boolean(true = request was successful otherwise an error occured) and the response is echoed.
See: http://php.net/en/manual/function.curl-exec.php
Clean session closing and deletion of the curl-handler by using curl_close. See: http://php.net/manual/en/function.curl-close.php
Using boolean values for the curl_setopt function instead of using any number.(I know that any number not equal zero is also considered as true, but the usage of true generates a more readable code, but that's just my opinion)
Ability to make HTTP-PUT/DELETE calls(useful for RESTful service testing)
Example of usage
GET
$response = HTTPRequester::HTTPGet("http://localhost/service/foobar.php", array("getParam" => "foobar"));
POST
$response = HTTPRequester::HTTPPost("http://localhost/service/foobar.php", array("postParam" => "foobar"));
PUT
$response = HTTPRequester::HTTPPut("http://localhost/service/foobar.php", array("putParam" => "foobar"));
DELETE
$response = HTTPRequester::HTTPDelete("http://localhost/service/foobar.php", array("deleteParam" => "foobar"));
Testing
You can also make some cool service tests by using this simple class.
class HTTPRequesterCase extends TestCase {
/**
* #description test static method HTTPGet
*/
public function testHTTPGet() {
$requestArr = array("getLicenses" => 1);
$url = "http://localhost/project/req/licenseService.php";
$this->assertEquals(HTTPRequester::HTTPGet($url, $requestArr), '[{"error":false,"val":["NONE","AGPL","GPLv3"]}]');
}
/**
* #description test static method HTTPPost
*/
public function testHTTPPost() {
$requestArr = array("addPerson" => array("foo", "bar"));
$url = "http://localhost/project/req/personService.php";
$this->assertEquals(HTTPRequester::HTTPPost($url, $requestArr), '[{"error":false}]');
}
/**
* #description test static method HTTPPut
*/
public function testHTTPPut() {
$requestArr = array("updatePerson" => array("foo", "bar"));
$url = "http://localhost/project/req/personService.php";
$this->assertEquals(HTTPRequester::HTTPPut($url, $requestArr), '[{"error":false}]');
}
/**
* #description test static method HTTPDelete
*/
public function testHTTPDelete() {
$requestArr = array("deletePerson" => array("foo", "bar"));
$url = "http://localhost/project/req/personService.php";
$this->assertEquals(HTTPRequester::HTTPDelete($url, $requestArr), '[{"error":false}]');
}
}

There's another CURL method if you are going that way.
This is pretty straightforward once you get your head around the way the PHP curl extension works, combining various flags with setopt() calls. In this example I've got a variable $xml which holds the XML I have prepared to send - I'm going to post the contents of that to example's test method.
$url = 'http://api.example.com/services/xmlrpc/';
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $xml);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
//process $response
First we initialised the connection, then we set some options using setopt(). These tell PHP that we are making a post request, and that we are sending some data with it, supplying the data. The CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER flag tells curl to give us the output as the return value of curl_exec rather than outputting it. Then we make the call and close the connection - the result is in $response.

If you by any chance are using Wordpress to develop your app (it's actually a convenient way to get authorization, info pages etc even for very simple stuff), you can use the following snippet:
$response = wp_remote_post( $url, array('body' => $parameters));
if ( is_wp_error( $response ) ) {
// $response->get_error_message()
} else {
// $response['body']
}
It uses different ways of making the actual HTTP request, depending on what is available on the web server. For more details, see the HTTP API documentation.
If you don't want to develop a custom theme or plugin to start the Wordpress engine, you can just do the following in an isolated PHP file in the wordpress root:
require_once( dirname(__FILE__) . '/wp-load.php' );
// ... your code
It won't show any theme or output any HTML, just hack away with the Wordpress APIs!

Another alternative of the curl-less method above is to use the native stream functions:
stream_context_create():
Creates and returns a stream context with any options supplied in options preset.
stream_get_contents():
Identical to file_get_contents(), except that stream_get_contents() operates on an already open stream resource and returns the remaining contents in a string, up to maxlength bytes and starting at the specified offset.
A POST function with these can simply be like this:
<?php
function post_request($url, array $params) {
$query_content = http_build_query($params);
$fp = fopen($url, 'r', FALSE, // do not use_include_path
stream_context_create([
'http' => [
'header' => [ // header array does not need '\r\n'
'Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
'Content-Length: ' . strlen($query_content)
],
'method' => 'POST',
'content' => $query_content
]
]));
if ($fp === FALSE) {
return json_encode(['error' => 'Failed to get contents...']);
}
$result = stream_get_contents($fp); // no maxlength/offset
fclose($fp);
return $result;
}

Here is using just one command without cURL. Super simple.
echo file_get_contents('https://www.server.com', false, stream_context_create([
'http' => [
'method' => 'POST',
'header' => "Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
'content' => http_build_query([
'key1' => 'Hello world!', 'key2' => 'second value'
])
]
]));

The better way of sending GET or POST requests with PHP is as below:
<?php
$r = new HttpRequest('http://example.com/form.php', HttpRequest::METH_POST);
$r->setOptions(array('cookies' => array('lang' => 'de')));
$r->addPostFields(array('user' => 'mike', 'pass' => 's3c|r3t'));
try {
echo $r->send()->getBody();
} catch (HttpException $ex) {
echo $ex;
}
?>
The code is taken from official documentation here http://docs.php.net/manual/da/httprequest.send.php

Based on the main answer, here is what I use:
function do_post($url, $params) {
$options = array(
'http' => array(
'header' => "Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n",
'method' => 'POST',
'content' => $params
)
);
$result = file_get_contents($url, false, stream_context_create($options));
}
Example usage:
do_post('https://www.google-analytics.com/collect', 'v=1&t=pageview&tid=UA-xxxxxxx-xx&cid=abcdef...');

I was looking for a similar problem and found a better approach of doing this. So here it goes.
You can simply put the following line on the redirection page (say page1.php).
header("Location: URL", TRUE, 307); // Replace URL with to be redirected URL, e.g. final.php
I need this to redirect POST requests for REST API calls. This solution is able to redirect with post data as well as custom header values.
Here is the reference link.

[Edit]: Please ignore, not available in php now.
There is one more which you can use
<?php
$fields = array(
'name' => 'mike',
'pass' => 'se_ret'
);
$files = array(
array(
'name' => 'uimg',
'type' => 'image/jpeg',
'file' => './profile.jpg',
)
);
$response = http_post_fields("http://www.example.com/", $fields, $files);
?>
Click here for details

Here ok with this code:
<?php
$postdata = http_build_query(
array(
'name' => 'Robert',
'id' => '1'
)
);
$opts = array('http' =>
array(
'method' => 'POST',
'header' => 'Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
'content' => $postdata
)
);
$context = stream_context_create($opts);
$result = file_get_contents('http://localhost:8000/api/test', false, $context);
echo $result;?>

Try PEAR's HTTP_Request2 package to easily send POST requests. Alternatively, you can use PHP's curl functions or use a PHP stream context.
HTTP_Request2 also makes it possible to mock out the server, so you can unit-test your code easily

I make a function to request a post using JSON:
const FORMAT_CONTENT_LENGTH = 'Content-Length: %d';
const FORMAT_CONTENT_TYPE = 'Content-Type: %s';
const CONTENT_TYPE_JSON = 'application/json';
/**
* #description Make a HTTP-POST JSON call
* #param string $url
* #param array $params
* #return bool|string HTTP-Response body or an empty string if the request fails or is empty
*/
function HTTPJSONPost(string $url, array $params)
{
$content = json_encode($params);
$response = file_get_contents($url, false, // do not use_include_path
stream_context_create([
'http' => [
'method' => 'POST',
'header' => [ // header array does not need '\r\n'
sprintf(FORMAT_CONTENT_TYPE, CONTENT_TYPE_JSON),
sprintf(FORMAT_CONTENT_LENGTH, strlen($content)),
],
'content' => $content
]
])); // no maxlength/offset
if ($response === false) {
return json_encode(['error' => 'Failed to get contents...']);
}
return $response;
}

I prefer this one:
function curlPost($url, $data = NULL, $headers = []) {
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/63.0.3239.132 Safari/537.36');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 5); //timeout in seconds
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_ENCODING, 'identity');
if (!empty($data)) {
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
}
if (!empty($headers)) {
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
}
$response = curl_exec($ch);
if (curl_error($ch)) {
trigger_error('Curl Error:' . curl_error($ch));
}
curl_close($ch);
return $response;
}
Usage example:
$response=curlPost("http://my.url.com", ["myField1"=>"myValue1"], ["myFitstHeaderName"=>"myFirstHeaderValue"]);

The top answers didn't work for me. This was the first solution that ran perfectly:
$sPD = "name=Jacob&bench=150"; // The POST Data
$aHTTP = array(
'http' => // The wrapper to be used
array(
'method' => 'POST', // Request Method
// Request Headers Below
'header' => 'Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
'content' => $sPD
)
);
$context = stream_context_create($aHTTP);
$contents = file_get_contents($sURL, false, $context);
echo $contents;

After redirection submit form with values with PHP [duplicate]

Can anyone show me how to do a PHP cURL with an HTTP POST?
I want to send data like this:
username=user1, password=passuser1, gender=1
To www.example.com
I expect the cURL to return a response like result=OK. Are there any examples?

<?php
//
// A very simple PHP example that sends a HTTP POST to a remote site
//
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,"http://www.example.com/tester.phtml");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,
"postvar1=value1&postvar2=value2&postvar3=value3");
// In real life you should use something like:
// curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,
// http_build_query(array('postvar1' => 'value1')));
// Receive server response ...
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$server_output = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
// Further processing ...
if ($server_output == "OK") { ... } else { ... }
?>

Procedural
// set post fields
$post = [
'username' => 'user1',
'password' => 'passuser1',
'gender' => 1,
];
$ch = curl_init('http://www.example.com');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $post);
// execute!
$response = curl_exec($ch);
// close the connection, release resources used
curl_close($ch);
// do anything you want with your response
var_dump($response);
Object oriented
<?php
// mutatis mutandis
namespace MyApp\Http;
class CurlPost
{
private $url;
private $options;
/**
* #param string $url Request URL
* #param array $options cURL options
*/
public function __construct($url, array $options = [])
{
$this->url = $url;
$this->options = $options;
}
/**
* Get the response
* #return string
* #throws \RuntimeException On cURL error
*/
public function __invoke(array $post)
{
$ch = \curl_init($this->url);
foreach ($this->options as $key => $val) {
\curl_setopt($ch, $key, $val);
}
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $post);
$response = \curl_exec($ch);
$error = \curl_error($ch);
$errno = \curl_errno($ch);
if (\is_resource($ch)) {
\curl_close($ch);
}
if (0 !== $errno) {
throw new \RuntimeException($error, $errno);
}
return $response;
}
}
Usage
// create curl object
$curl = new \MyApp\Http\CurlPost('http://www.example.com');
try {
// execute the request
echo $curl([
'username' => 'user1',
'password' => 'passuser1',
'gender' => 1,
]);
} catch (\RuntimeException $ex) {
// catch errors
die(sprintf('Http error %s with code %d', $ex->getMessage(), $ex->getCode()));
}
Side note here: it would be best to create some kind of interface called AdapterInterface for example with getResponse() method and let the class above implement it. Then you can always swap this implementation with another adapter of your like, without any side effects to your application.
Using HTTPS / encrypting traffic
Usually there's a problem with cURL in PHP under the Windows operating system. While trying to connect to a https protected endpoint, you will get an error telling you that certificate verify failed.
What most people do here is to tell the cURL library to simply ignore certificate errors and continue (curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);). As this will make your code work, you introduce huge security hole and enable malicious users to perform various attacks on your app like Man In The Middle attack or such.
Never, ever do that. Instead, you simply need to modify your php.ini and tell PHP where your CA Certificate file is to let it verify certificates correctly:
; modify the absolute path to the cacert.pem file
curl.cainfo=c:\php\cacert.pem
The latest cacert.pem can be downloaded from the Internet or extracted from your favorite browser. When changing any php.ini related settings remember to restart your webserver.

A live example of using php curl_exec to do an HTTP post:
Put this in a file called foobar.php:
<?php
$ch = curl_init();
$skipper = "luxury assault recreational vehicle";
$fields = array( 'penguins'=>$skipper, 'bestpony'=>'rainbowdash');
$postvars = '';
foreach($fields as $key=>$value) {
$postvars .= $key . "=" . $value . "&";
}
$url = "http://www.google.com";
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL,$url);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST, 1); //0 for a get request
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,$postvars);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT ,3);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 20);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
print "curl response is:" . $response;
curl_close ($ch);
?>
Then run it with the command php foobar.php, it dumps this kind of output to screen:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<title>Title</title>
<meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache">
<meta http-equiv="Expires" content="0">
<body>
A mountain of content...
</body>
</html>
So you did a PHP POST to www.google.com and sent it some data.
Had the server been programmed to read in the post variables, it could decide to do something different based upon that.

It's can be easily reached with:
<?php
$post = [
'username' => 'user1',
'password' => 'passuser1',
'gender' => 1,
];
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'http://www.domain.com');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query($post));
$response = curl_exec($ch);
var_export($response);

1.Step by step
Initialize the cURL session:
$url = "www.domain.com";
$ch = curl_init($url);
If your request has headers like bearer token or defining JSON contents you have to set HTTPHEADER options to cURL:
$token = "generated token code";
curl_setopt(
$ch,
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER,
array(
'Content-Type: application/json', // for define content type that is json
'bearer: '.$token, // send token in header request
'Content-length: 100' // content length for example 100 characters (can add by strlen($fields))
)
);
If you want to include the header in the output set CURLOPT_HEADER to true:
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
Set RETURNTRANSFER option to true to return the transfer as a string instead of outputting it directly:
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
To check the existence of a common name in the SSL peer certificate can be set to 0(to not check the names), 1(not supported in cURL 7.28.1), 2(default value and for production mode):
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 2);
For posting fields as an array by cURL:
$fields = array(
"username" => "user1",
"password" => "passuser1",
"gender" => 1
);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $fields);
Execute cURL and return the string. depending on your resource this returns output like result=OK:
$result = curl_exec($ch);
Close cURL resource, and free up system resources:
curl_close($ch);
2.Use as a class
The whole call_cURL class that can be extended:
class class_name_for_call_cURL {
protected function getUrl() {
return "www.domain.com";
}
public function call_cURL() {
$token = "generated token code";
$fields = array(
"username" => "user1",
"password" => "passuser1",
"gender" => 1
);
$url = $this->getUrl();
$output = $this->_execute($fields, $url, $token);
// if you want to get json data
// $output = json_decode($output);
if ($output == "OK") {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
private function _execute($postData, $url, $token) {
// for sending data as json type
$fields = json_encode($postData);
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt(
$ch,
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER,
array(
'Content-Type: application/json', // if the content type is json
'bearer: '.$token // if you need token in header
)
);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 2);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $fields);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
return $result;
}
}
Using the class and call cURL:
$class = new class_name_for_call_cURL();
var_dump($class->call_cURL()); // output is true/false
3.One function
A function for using anywhere that needed:
function get_cURL() {
$url = "www.domain.com";
$token = "generated token code";
$postData = array(
"username" => "user1",
"password" => "passuser1",
"gender" => 1
);
// for sending data as json type
$fields = json_encode($postData);
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt(
$ch,
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER,
array(
'Content-Type: application/json', // if the content type is json
'bearer: '.$token // if you need token in header
)
);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 2);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $fields);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
return $result;
}
This function is usable just by:
var_dump(get_cURL());

Curl Post + Error Handling + Set Headers [thanks to #mantas-d]:
function curlPost($url, $data=NULL, $headers = NULL) {
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
if(!empty($data)){
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
}
if (!empty($headers)) {
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
}
$response = curl_exec($ch);
if (curl_error($ch)) {
trigger_error('Curl Error:' . curl_error($ch));
}
curl_close($ch);
return $response;
}
curlPost('google.com', [
'username' => 'admin',
'password' => '12345',
]);

curlPost('google.com', [
'username' => 'admin',
'password' => '12345',
]);
function curlPost($url, $data) {
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
$error = curl_error($ch);
curl_close($ch);
if ($error !== '') {
throw new \Exception($error);
}
return $response;
}

I'm surprised nobody suggested file_get_contents:
$url = "http://www.example.com";
$parameters = array('username' => 'user1', 'password' => 'passuser1', 'gender' => '1');
$options = array('http' => array(
'header' => 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n',
'method' => 'POST',
'content' => http_build_query($parameters)
));
$context = stream_context_create($options);
$result = file_get_contents($url, false, $context);
it's simple, it works; I use it in an environment where I control the code at both ends.
even better, use json_decode (and set up your code to return JSON)
$result = json_decode(file_get_contents($url, false, $context), TRUE);
this approach invokes curl behind the scenes, but you don't jump through as many hoops.
Answer refined from this original answer elsewhere on Stack Overflow:
PHP sending variables to file_get_contents()

If the form is using redirects, authentication, cookies, SSL (https), or anything else other than a totally open script expecting POST variables, you are going to start gnashing your teeth really quick. Take a look at Snoopy, which does exactly what you have in mind while removing the need to set up a lot of the overhead.

A simpler answer IF you are passing information to your own website is to use a SESSION variable. Begin php page with:
session_start();
If at some point there is information you want to generate in PHP and pass to the next page in the session, instead of using a POST variable, assign it to a SESSION variable. Example:
$_SESSION['message']='www.'.$_GET['school'].'.edu was not found. Please try again.'
Then on the next page you simply reference this SESSION variable. NOTE: after you use it, be sure you destroy it, so it doesn't persist after it is used:
if (isset($_SESSION['message'])) {echo $_SESSION['message']; unset($_SESSION['message']);}

Here are some boilerplate code for PHP + curl
http://www.webbotsspidersscreenscrapers.com/DSP_download.php
include in these library will simplify development
<?php
# Initialization
include("LIB_http.php");
include("LIB_parse.php");
$product_array=array();
$product_count=0;
# Download the target (store) web page
$target = "http://www.tellmewhenitchanges.com/buyair";
$web_page = http_get($target, "");
...
?>

Examples of sending form and raw data:
$curlHandler = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($curlHandler, [
CURLOPT_URL => 'https://postman-echo.com/post',
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
/**
* Specify POST method
*/
CURLOPT_POST => true,
/**
* Specify array of form fields
*/
CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => [
'foo' => 'bar',
'baz' => 'biz',
],
]);
$response = curl_exec($curlHandler);
curl_close($curlHandler);
echo($response);

If you try to login on site with cookies.
This code:
if ($server_output == "OK") { ... } else { ... }
It May not works if you try to login, because many sites return status 200, but the post is not successful.
The easy way to check if the login post is successful is to check if it setting cookies again. If in output have a Set-Cookies string, this means the posts are not successful and it starts a new session.
Also, the post can be successful, but the status can redirect instead of 200.
To be sure the post is successful try this:
Follow location after the post, so it will go to the page where the post does redirect to:
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
And than check if new cookies existing in the request:
if (!preg_match('/^Set-Cookie:\s*([^;]*)/mi', $server_output))
{echo 'post successful'; }
else { echo 'not successful'; }

Easiest is to send data as application/json. This will take an array as input and properly encodes it into a json string:
$data = array(
'field1' => 'field1value',
'field2' => 'field2value',
)
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($data));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(
'Content-Type:application/json',
));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$resultStr = curl_exec($ch);
return json_decode($resultStr, true);

Incorrect Parameters Sent to Service in POST JSON using cURL

Im making this API adapter to POST data our OMS (Order Management System). And I keep getting this error. I dunno if it's really an error because the adapter is connected. the POSTing is the problem. I'm using JSON and cURL to pass data to be updated. So here's my code:
$data = array(
'package' => array(
'tracking_number' => '735897086',
'package_status' => 'failed',
'failed_reason' => 'other1',
'update_at' => '2013-11-22 09:58:39'
)
);
and this is how I POST it.
$postdata = "apikey=$apikey&method=$method&data=$check";
$ch = curl_init();
//SSL verification fixed with this two codes
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
curl_setopt_array(
$ch,
array(
CURLOPT_URL => $url.'/webservice/',
CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => true,
CURLOPT_VERBOSE => true,
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'POST',
CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $postdata,
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array('Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded')
)
);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
and this is my code to test the connection and check if the POSTing is success.
if(curl_exec($ch) === false) { echo 'Curl error: ' . curl_error($ch); } else { echo 'Operation completed without any errors'; }
$result = curl_exec($ch);
echo $result;
curl_close($ch);
I don't really know why I keep getting the "INCORRECT PARAMETERS SENT TO SERVICE". I already reviewed the documentation, the parameters are right. :(

I do believe it is because your POST variables are an array within an array so, what you end up trying to do with your current approach is invalid as stated.
Prior to setting $data in CURL try running the following:
$data = http_build_query($data);
See the PHP definition of http_build_query for more details

I forgot to add this. I encode it to JSON that's why I use arrays.
$check=json_encode($data);
echo $check;
$postdata = "method=$method&data=$check&apikey=$apikey";
$ch = curl_init();
I echo it first before getting the response to check if it's encoded in JSON. then I got this error:
{"package":{"order_number":"200118788","package_number":"200118788-4274","tracking_number":"735897086","package_status":"failed","failed_reason":"other1","update_at":"2013-08-06 17:02:14"}}Operation completed without any errors{"OmsSuccessResponse":false,"message":"Incorrect parameters sent to service","package_status":null}

How do I send a POST request with PHP?

Actually I want to read the contents that come after the search query, when it is done. The problem is that the URL only accepts POST methods, and it does not take any action with GET method...
I have to read all contents with the help of domdocument or file_get_contents(). Is there any method that will let me send parameters with POST method and then read the contents via PHP?

CURL-less method with PHP5:
$url = 'http://server.com/path';
$data = array('key1' => 'value1', 'key2' => 'value2');
// use key 'http' even if you send the request to https://...
$options = array(
'http' => array(
'header' => "Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n",
'method' => 'POST',
'content' => http_build_query($data)
)
);
$context = stream_context_create($options);
$result = file_get_contents($url, false, $context);
if ($result === FALSE) { /* Handle error */ }
var_dump($result);
See the PHP manual for more information on the method and how to add headers, for example:
stream_context_create: http://php.net/manual/en/function.stream-context-create.php

You could use cURL:
<?php
//The url you wish to send the POST request to
$url = $file_name;
//The data you want to send via POST
$fields = [
'__VIEWSTATE ' => $state,
'__EVENTVALIDATION' => $valid,
'btnSubmit' => 'Submit'
];
//url-ify the data for the POST
$fields_string = http_build_query($fields);
//open connection
$ch = curl_init();
//set the url, number of POST vars, POST data
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $fields_string);
//So that curl_exec returns the contents of the cURL; rather than echoing it
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
//execute post
$result = curl_exec($ch);
echo $result;
?>

I use the following function to post data using curl. $data is an array of fields to post (will be correctly encoded using http_build_query()).
function httpPost($url, $data)
{
$curl = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query($data));
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response = curl_exec($curl);
curl_close($curl);
return $response;
}
#Edward mentions that http_build_query() may be omitted since curl will correctly encode array passed to CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS parameter, which is correct, but be advised that in this case the data will be encoded using multipart/form-data and it may not be desirable as some endpoints expect data to be encoded using application/x-www-form-urlencoded. When using http_build_query() as in the function above, data will be encoded with application/x-www-form-urlencoded.

I recommend you to use the open-source package guzzle that is fully unit tested and uses the latest coding practices.
Installing Guzzle
Go to the command line in your project folder and type in the following command (assuming you already have the package manager composer installed). If you need help how to install Composer, you should have a look here.
php composer.phar require guzzlehttp/guzzle
Using Guzzle to send a POST request
The usage of Guzzle is very straight forward as it uses a light-weight object-oriented API:
// Initialize Guzzle client
$client = new GuzzleHttp\Client();
// Create a POST request
$response = $client->request(
'POST',
'http://example.org/',
[
'form_params' => [
'key1' => 'value1',
'key2' => 'value2'
]
]
);
// Parse the response object, e.g. read the headers, body, etc.
$headers = $response->getHeaders();
$body = $response->getBody();
// Output headers and body for debugging purposes
var_dump($headers, $body);

I'd like to add some thoughts about the curl-based answer of Fred Tanrikut. I know most of them are already written in the answers above, but I think it is a good idea to show an answer that includes all of them together.
Here is the class I wrote to make HTTP-GET/POST/PUT/DELETE requests based on curl, concerning just about the response body:
class HTTPRequester {
/**
* #description Make HTTP-GET call
* #param $url
* #param array $params
* #return HTTP-Response body or an empty string if the request fails or is empty
*/
public static function HTTPGet($url, array $params) {
$query = http_build_query($params);
$ch = curl_init($url.'?'.$query);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
return $response;
}
/**
* #description Make HTTP-POST call
* #param $url
* #param array $params
* #return HTTP-Response body or an empty string if the request fails or is empty
*/
public static function HTTPPost($url, array $params) {
$query = http_build_query($params);
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $query);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
return $response;
}
/**
* #description Make HTTP-PUT call
* #param $url
* #param array $params
* #return HTTP-Response body or an empty string if the request fails or is empty
*/
public static function HTTPPut($url, array $params) {
$query = \http_build_query($params);
$ch = \curl_init();
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_URL, $url);
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, 'PUT');
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $query);
$response = \curl_exec($ch);
\curl_close($ch);
return $response;
}
/**
* #category Make HTTP-DELETE call
* #param $url
* #param array $params
* #return HTTP-Response body or an empty string if the request fails or is empty
*/
public static function HTTPDelete($url, array $params) {
$query = \http_build_query($params);
$ch = \curl_init();
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_URL, $url);
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, 'DELETE');
\curl_setopt($ch, \CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $query);
$response = \curl_exec($ch);
\curl_close($ch);
return $response;
}
}
Improvements
Using http_build_query to get the query-string out of an request-array.(you could also use the array itself, therefore see: http://php.net/manual/en/function.curl-setopt.php)
Returning the response instead of echoing it. Btw you can avoid the returning by removing the line curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);. After that the return value is a boolean(true = request was successful otherwise an error occured) and the response is echoed.
See: http://php.net/en/manual/function.curl-exec.php
Clean session closing and deletion of the curl-handler by using curl_close. See: http://php.net/manual/en/function.curl-close.php
Using boolean values for the curl_setopt function instead of using any number.(I know that any number not equal zero is also considered as true, but the usage of true generates a more readable code, but that's just my opinion)
Ability to make HTTP-PUT/DELETE calls(useful for RESTful service testing)
Example of usage
GET
$response = HTTPRequester::HTTPGet("http://localhost/service/foobar.php", array("getParam" => "foobar"));
POST
$response = HTTPRequester::HTTPPost("http://localhost/service/foobar.php", array("postParam" => "foobar"));
PUT
$response = HTTPRequester::HTTPPut("http://localhost/service/foobar.php", array("putParam" => "foobar"));
DELETE
$response = HTTPRequester::HTTPDelete("http://localhost/service/foobar.php", array("deleteParam" => "foobar"));
Testing
You can also make some cool service tests by using this simple class.
class HTTPRequesterCase extends TestCase {
/**
* #description test static method HTTPGet
*/
public function testHTTPGet() {
$requestArr = array("getLicenses" => 1);
$url = "http://localhost/project/req/licenseService.php";
$this->assertEquals(HTTPRequester::HTTPGet($url, $requestArr), '[{"error":false,"val":["NONE","AGPL","GPLv3"]}]');
}
/**
* #description test static method HTTPPost
*/
public function testHTTPPost() {
$requestArr = array("addPerson" => array("foo", "bar"));
$url = "http://localhost/project/req/personService.php";
$this->assertEquals(HTTPRequester::HTTPPost($url, $requestArr), '[{"error":false}]');
}
/**
* #description test static method HTTPPut
*/
public function testHTTPPut() {
$requestArr = array("updatePerson" => array("foo", "bar"));
$url = "http://localhost/project/req/personService.php";
$this->assertEquals(HTTPRequester::HTTPPut($url, $requestArr), '[{"error":false}]');
}
/**
* #description test static method HTTPDelete
*/
public function testHTTPDelete() {
$requestArr = array("deletePerson" => array("foo", "bar"));
$url = "http://localhost/project/req/personService.php";
$this->assertEquals(HTTPRequester::HTTPDelete($url, $requestArr), '[{"error":false}]');
}
}

There's another CURL method if you are going that way.
This is pretty straightforward once you get your head around the way the PHP curl extension works, combining various flags with setopt() calls. In this example I've got a variable $xml which holds the XML I have prepared to send - I'm going to post the contents of that to example's test method.
$url = 'http://api.example.com/services/xmlrpc/';
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $xml);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
//process $response
First we initialised the connection, then we set some options using setopt(). These tell PHP that we are making a post request, and that we are sending some data with it, supplying the data. The CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER flag tells curl to give us the output as the return value of curl_exec rather than outputting it. Then we make the call and close the connection - the result is in $response.

If you by any chance are using Wordpress to develop your app (it's actually a convenient way to get authorization, info pages etc even for very simple stuff), you can use the following snippet:
$response = wp_remote_post( $url, array('body' => $parameters));
if ( is_wp_error( $response ) ) {
// $response->get_error_message()
} else {
// $response['body']
}
It uses different ways of making the actual HTTP request, depending on what is available on the web server. For more details, see the HTTP API documentation.
If you don't want to develop a custom theme or plugin to start the Wordpress engine, you can just do the following in an isolated PHP file in the wordpress root:
require_once( dirname(__FILE__) . '/wp-load.php' );
// ... your code
It won't show any theme or output any HTML, just hack away with the Wordpress APIs!

Another alternative of the curl-less method above is to use the native stream functions:
stream_context_create():
Creates and returns a stream context with any options supplied in options preset.
stream_get_contents():
Identical to file_get_contents(), except that stream_get_contents() operates on an already open stream resource and returns the remaining contents in a string, up to maxlength bytes and starting at the specified offset.
A POST function with these can simply be like this:
<?php
function post_request($url, array $params) {
$query_content = http_build_query($params);
$fp = fopen($url, 'r', FALSE, // do not use_include_path
stream_context_create([
'http' => [
'header' => [ // header array does not need '\r\n'
'Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
'Content-Length: ' . strlen($query_content)
],
'method' => 'POST',
'content' => $query_content
]
]));
if ($fp === FALSE) {
return json_encode(['error' => 'Failed to get contents...']);
}
$result = stream_get_contents($fp); // no maxlength/offset
fclose($fp);
return $result;
}

Here is using just one command without cURL. Super simple.
echo file_get_contents('https://www.server.com', false, stream_context_create([
'http' => [
'method' => 'POST',
'header' => "Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
'content' => http_build_query([
'key1' => 'Hello world!', 'key2' => 'second value'
])
]
]));

The better way of sending GET or POST requests with PHP is as below:
<?php
$r = new HttpRequest('http://example.com/form.php', HttpRequest::METH_POST);
$r->setOptions(array('cookies' => array('lang' => 'de')));
$r->addPostFields(array('user' => 'mike', 'pass' => 's3c|r3t'));
try {
echo $r->send()->getBody();
} catch (HttpException $ex) {
echo $ex;
}
?>
The code is taken from official documentation here http://docs.php.net/manual/da/httprequest.send.php

Based on the main answer, here is what I use:
function do_post($url, $params) {
$options = array(
'http' => array(
'header' => "Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n",
'method' => 'POST',
'content' => $params
)
);
$result = file_get_contents($url, false, stream_context_create($options));
}
Example usage:
do_post('https://www.google-analytics.com/collect', 'v=1&t=pageview&tid=UA-xxxxxxx-xx&cid=abcdef...');

I was looking for a similar problem and found a better approach of doing this. So here it goes.
You can simply put the following line on the redirection page (say page1.php).
header("Location: URL", TRUE, 307); // Replace URL with to be redirected URL, e.g. final.php
I need this to redirect POST requests for REST API calls. This solution is able to redirect with post data as well as custom header values.
Here is the reference link.

[Edit]: Please ignore, not available in php now.
There is one more which you can use
<?php
$fields = array(
'name' => 'mike',
'pass' => 'se_ret'
);
$files = array(
array(
'name' => 'uimg',
'type' => 'image/jpeg',
'file' => './profile.jpg',
)
);
$response = http_post_fields("http://www.example.com/", $fields, $files);
?>
Click here for details

Here ok with this code:
<?php
$postdata = http_build_query(
array(
'name' => 'Robert',
'id' => '1'
)
);
$opts = array('http' =>
array(
'method' => 'POST',
'header' => 'Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
'content' => $postdata
)
);
$context = stream_context_create($opts);
$result = file_get_contents('http://localhost:8000/api/test', false, $context);
echo $result;?>

Try PEAR's HTTP_Request2 package to easily send POST requests. Alternatively, you can use PHP's curl functions or use a PHP stream context.
HTTP_Request2 also makes it possible to mock out the server, so you can unit-test your code easily

I make a function to request a post using JSON:
const FORMAT_CONTENT_LENGTH = 'Content-Length: %d';
const FORMAT_CONTENT_TYPE = 'Content-Type: %s';
const CONTENT_TYPE_JSON = 'application/json';
/**
* #description Make a HTTP-POST JSON call
* #param string $url
* #param array $params
* #return bool|string HTTP-Response body or an empty string if the request fails or is empty
*/
function HTTPJSONPost(string $url, array $params)
{
$content = json_encode($params);
$response = file_get_contents($url, false, // do not use_include_path
stream_context_create([
'http' => [
'method' => 'POST',
'header' => [ // header array does not need '\r\n'
sprintf(FORMAT_CONTENT_TYPE, CONTENT_TYPE_JSON),
sprintf(FORMAT_CONTENT_LENGTH, strlen($content)),
],
'content' => $content
]
])); // no maxlength/offset
if ($response === false) {
return json_encode(['error' => 'Failed to get contents...']);
}
return $response;
}

I prefer this one:
function curlPost($url, $data = NULL, $headers = []) {
$ch = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/63.0.3239.132 Safari/537.36');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 5); //timeout in seconds
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_ENCODING, 'identity');
if (!empty($data)) {
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
}
if (!empty($headers)) {
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
}
$response = curl_exec($ch);
if (curl_error($ch)) {
trigger_error('Curl Error:' . curl_error($ch));
}
curl_close($ch);
return $response;
}
Usage example:
$response=curlPost("http://my.url.com", ["myField1"=>"myValue1"], ["myFitstHeaderName"=>"myFirstHeaderValue"]);

The top answers didn't work for me. This was the first solution that ran perfectly:
$sPD = "name=Jacob&bench=150"; // The POST Data
$aHTTP = array(
'http' => // The wrapper to be used
array(
'method' => 'POST', // Request Method
// Request Headers Below
'header' => 'Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
'content' => $sPD
)
);
$context = stream_context_create($aHTTP);
$contents = file_get_contents($sURL, false, $context);
echo $contents;

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