http_post - example needed

[chestertb]

I'm stepping out my comfort zone a bit here...

I want to use http_post() to post a value to a supplier's server. I've looked at the documentation on php, and am not sure I fully understand it.

I'm hoping someone here could give me a quick example of how to use http_post to send the following;

Field name: test
Value: "Y"

Field name: ref
Value :1234546

Target url: www.testit.com/script.php

I don't want to draw the form in html and then send it... this is an automated response to my supplier's post to me.

Thanks
CTB

[NogDog]

Do you have the PECL HTTP extension installed? If so, you could use the http_post_data() function. If not, you could use the Curl functions, if you have the Curl extension installed.

[chestertb]

Doesn't look like pecl is installed.

http_post_data() is probably the way to go, and I've looked at the php manual but my brain is crying out for an example because I'm not sure how to properly construct

PHP Code:

http_post_data("http://www.targeturl.com/script.php", test="Y", ref="123456")


Or maybe that's all I need and php will do the rest?

[NogDog]

Looks like the http_post_fields() might be better (still requires the PECL HTTP extension, though):

PHP Code:

$postData = array
(
   'field1' => 'Value 1',
   'field2' => 'Value 2',
   'field3' => 'Value 3'
);
$result = http_post_fields('http://www.testit.com/script.php', $postData);


[chestertb]

Thanks Nogdog. I'll try it.
And thanks muchly for that other thing too... haven't moved it yet... will get to that later today.

[bokeh]

This isn't perfect:

PHP Code:

function HttpRequest( $url, $method = 'GET', $data = NULL, $additional_headers = NULL, $followRedirects = true )
{
    # in compliance with the RFC 2616 post data will not redirected
    $method = strtoupper($method);
    $url_parsed = @parse_url($url);
    if (!@$url_parsed['scheme']) $url_parsed = @parse_url('http://'.$url);
    extract($url_parsed);
    if(!is_array($data))
    {
        $data = NULL;
    }
    else
    {
        $ampersand = '';
        $temp = NULL;
        foreach($data as $k => $v)
        {
            $temp .= $ampersand.urlencode($k).'='.urlencode($v);
            $ampersand = '&';
        }
        $data = $temp;
    }
    if(!@$port) $port = 80;
    if(!@$path) $path = '/';
    if(($method == 'GET') and ($data)) $query = (@$query)?'&'.$data:'?'.$data;
    if(@$query) $path .= '?'.$query;
    $out = "$method $path HTTP/1.0\r\n";
    $out .= "Host: $host\r\n";
    if($method == 'POST')
    {
        $out .= "Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n";
        $out .= "Content-length: " . @strlen($data) . "\r\n";
    }
    $out .= (@$additional_headers)?$additional_headers:'';
    $out .= "Connection: Close\r\n\r\n";
    if($method == 'POST') $out .= $data."\r\n";
    if(!$fp = @fsockopen($host, $port, $es, $en, 5)){
       return false;
   }
   fwrite($fp, $out);
    while (!feof($fp)) {
        $s = fgets($fp, 128);
        echo $s;
        if ( $s == "\r\n" ) {
            $foundBody = true;
            continue;
        }
        if ( $foundBody ) {
            $body .= $s;
        } else {
            
            //echo $s;
            
            if(($method != 'POST') and ($followRedirects) and (preg_match('/^Location:(.*)/i', $s, $matches) != false) )
            {
                fclose($fp);
                return HttpRequest( trim($matches[1]) );
            }
            $header .= $s;
            if(preg_match('@HTTP[/]1[.][01x][\s]{1,}([1-5][01][0-9])[\s].*$@', $s, $matches))
            {
                $status = trim($matches[1]);
            }
        }
    }
    fclose($fp);
    return array('head' => trim($header), 'body' => trim($body), 'status' => $status);
}


[chestertb]

wow. I'll need some time to digest all that.
Thanks for the effort. Very much appreciated.

[potherca]

I ran into the same problem as chestertb and with no PECL or CURL installed I was kinda stuck... so I would like to add a BIG thank you to bokeh, his code worked like a charm.

I know it's standard knowledge but I though maybe I should list the possible status returns below, for the full text see: http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html

Status Code Definitions
Informational 1xx

100 Continue
101 Switching Protocols

Successful 2xx

200 OK
201 Created
202 Accepted
203 Non-Authoritative Information
204 No Content
205 Reset Content
206 Partial Content

Redirection 3xx

300 Multiple Choices
301 Moved Permanently
302 Found
303 See Other
304 Not Modified
305 Use Proxy
306 (Unused)
307 Temporary Redirect

Client Error 4xx

400 Bad Request
401 Unauthorized
402 Payment Required
403 Forbidden
404 Not Found
405 Method Not Allowed
406 Not Acceptable
407 Proxy Authentication Required
408 Request Timeout
409 Conflict
410 Gone
411 Length Required
412 Precondition Failed
413 Request Entity Too Large
414 Request-URI Too Long
415 Unsupported Media Type
416 Requested Range Not Satisfiable
417 Expectation Failed

Server Error 5xx

500 Internal Server Error
501 Not Implemented
502 Bad Gateway
503 Service Unavailable
504 Gateway Timeout
505 HTTP Version Not Supported

hope this helps you other novices out there.

[AndiC]

Great information thank you

Is there away to do a "POST" and end up on the response page of the other script.

for example after you register on one of my sites it takes you to site.com/welcome.htm is it possible to do a http_post from a php script on another site that will still take you to the welcome page on the other site?

regards

AC