- How to Send a Post Request with PHP
- A. Using PHP Curl
- B. Using Pecl_Http
- C. Using the Object-Oriented (OO) Interface of Pecl_HTTP
- PHP GET/POST request
- HTTP
- HTTP GET
- HTTP POST
- PHP $_GET and $_POST
- PHP GET request
- PHP POST request
- PHP send GET request with Symfony HttpClient
- PHP send POST request with Symfony HttpClient
- PHP GET request in Symfony
- PHP POST request in Symfony
- PHP GET request in Slim
- PHP POST request in Slim
- PHP GET request in Laravel
- PHP POST request in Laravel
How to Send a Post Request with PHP
In this tutorial, we aim share with you 3 competent ways of sending post requests using PHP.
Follow the examples below and choose the one that meets your needs better.
A. Using PHP Curl
The PHP cURL extension is a quite straightforward way allowing to combine different flags with setopt() calls.
Below is an example with an $xml variable that holds the XML prepared for sending:
$url = 'http://api.flickr.com/services/xmlrpc/'; $ch = curl_init($url); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $xml); curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true); $response = curl_exec($ch); curl_close($ch); ?>
As you can notice from the example above, first, the connection is initialised, and then some options are set with setopt() . These actions inform PHP about making a post request.
B. Using Pecl_Http
Generally, Pecl_Http combines two interfaces. The first one is considered procedural, the second one- object-oriented . Let’s start at discovering the first one. It provides you with a simpler way than the curl. Here is a script, which is translated for pecl_http :
$url = 'http://api.flickr.com/services/xmlrpc/'; $response = http_post_data($url, $xml); ?>
C. Using the Object-Oriented (OO) Interface of Pecl_HTTP
As it was noted above, the second interface of xpecl_http is considered object- oriented . It is similar to the 2 extensions demonstrated above but applies a different interface. Here is how its code looks like:
$url = 'http://api.flickr.com/services/xmlrpc/'; $request = new HTTPRequest($url, HTTP_METH_POST); $request->setRawPostData($xml); $request->send(); $response = $request->getResponseBody(); ?>
You can notice that this code is longer than the previous one. You might think that it is more complicated, yet it is as powerful and flexible as the previous ones. So, it can be an outstanding option to implement in your practice.
PHP GET/POST request
PHP GET/POST request tutorial shows how to generate and process GET and POST requests in PHP. We use plain PHP and Symfony, Slim, and Laravel frameworks.
$ php -v php -v PHP 8.1.2 (cli) (built: Aug 8 2022 07:28:23) (NTS) .
HTTP
The is an application protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP protocol is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.
HTTP GET
The HTTP GET method requests a representation of the specified resource.
- should only be used to request a resource
- parameters are displayed in the URL
- can be cached
- remain in the browser history
- can be bookmarked
- should never be used when dealing with sensitive data
- have length limits
HTTP POST
The HTTP POST method sends data to the server. It is often used when uploading a file or when submitting a completed web form.
- should be used to create a resource
- parameters are not displayed in the URL
- are never cached
- do not remain in the browser history
- cannot be bookmarked
- can be used when dealing with sensitive data
- have no length limits
PHP $_GET and $_POST
PHP provides the $_GET and $_POST superglobals. The $_GET is an associative array of variables passed to the current script via the URL parameters (query string). The $_POST is an associative array of variables passed to the current script via the HTTP POST method when using application/x-www-form-urlencoded or multipart/form-data as the HTTP Content-Type in the request.
PHP GET request
In the following example, we generate a GET request with curl tool and process the request in plain PHP.
$message = $_GET['message']; if ($message == null) < $message = 'hello there'; >echo "$name says: $message";
The example retrieves the name and message parameters from the $_GET variable.
$ php -S localhost:8000 get_req.php
$ curl 'localhost:8000/?name=Lucia&message=Cau' Lucia says: Cau $ curl 'localhost:8000/?name=Lucia' Lucia says: hello there
We send two GET requests with curl.
PHP POST request
In the following example, we generate a POST request with curl tool and process the request in plain PHP.
$message = $_POST['message']; if ($message == null) < $message = 'hello there'; >echo "$name says: $message";
The example retrieves the name and message parameters from the $_POST variable.
$ php -S localhost:8000 post_req.php
$ curl -d "name=Lucia&message=Cau" localhost:8000 Lucia says: Cau
We send a POST request with curl.
PHP send GET request with Symfony HttpClient
Symfony provides the HttpClient component which enables us to create HTTP requests in PHP.
$ composer req symfony/http-client
We install the symfony/http-client component.
request('GET', 'http://localhost:8000', [ 'query' => [ 'name' => 'Lucia', 'message' => 'Cau', ] ]); $content = $response->getContent(); echo $content . "\n";
The example sends a GET request with two query parameters to localhost:8000/get_request.php .
$ php -S localhost:8000 get_req.php
$ php send_get_req.php Lucia says: Cau
We run the send_get_req.php script.
PHP send POST request with Symfony HttpClient
In the following example, we send a POST request with Symfony HttpClient.
request('POST', 'http://localhost:8000', [ 'body' => [ 'name' => 'Lucia', 'message' => 'Cau', ] ]); $content = $response->getContent(); echo $content . "\n";
The example sends a POST request with two parameters to localhost:8000/post_req.php .
$ php -S localhost:8000 post_req.php
$ php send_post_req.php Lucia says: Cau
We run the send_post_req.php script.
PHP GET request in Symfony
In the following example, we process a GET request in a Symfony application.
$ symfony new symreq $ cd symreq
A new application is created.
$ composer req annot $ composer req maker --dev
We install the annot and maker components.
$ php bin/console make:controller HomeController
We create a new controller.
) */ public function index(Request $request): Response < $name = $request->query->get('name', 'guest'); $message = $request->query->get('message', 'hello there'); $output = "$name says: $message"; return new Response($output, Response::HTTP_OK, ['content-type' => 'text/plain']); > >
Inside the HomeController’s index method, we get the query parameters and create a response.
$name = $request->query->get('name', 'guest');
The GET parameter is retrieved with $request->query->get . The second parameter of the method is a default value which is used when no value was retrieved.
$ curl 'localhost:8000/?name=Lucia&message=Cau' Lucia says: Cau
We generate a GET request with curl.
PHP POST request in Symfony
In the following example, we process a POST request in a Symfony application.
) */ public function index(Request $request): Response < $name = $request->request->get('name', 'guest'); $message = $request->request->get('message', 'hello there'); $output = "$name says: $message"; return new Response($output, Response::HTTP_OK, ['content-type' => 'text/plain']); > >
We change the controller to process the POST request.
$name = $request->request->get('name', 'guest');
The POST parameter is retrieved with $request->request->get . The second parameter of the method is a default value which is used when no value was retrieved.
$ curl -d "name=Lucia" localhost:8000 Lucia says: hello there
We generate a POST request with curl.
PHP GET request in Slim
In the following example, we are going to process a GET request in the Slim framework.
$ composer req slim/slim $ composer req slim/psr7 $ composer req slim/http
We install slim/slim , slim/psr7 , and slim/http packages.
get('/', function (Request $request, Response $response): Response < $name = $request->getQueryParam('name', 'guest'); $message = $request->getQueryParam('message', 'hello there'); $output = "$name says $message"; $response->getBody()->write($output); return $response; >); $app->run();
We get the parameters and return a response in Slim.
$name = $request->getQueryParam('name', 'guest');
The query parameter is retrieved with getQueryParam ; the second parameter is the default value.
$response->getBody()->write($output);
We write the output to the response body with write .
$ php -S localhost:8000 -t public
$ curl 'localhost:8000/?name=Lucia&message=Cau' Lucia says: Cau
We generate a GET request with curl.
PHP POST request in Slim
In the following example, we are going to process a POST request in the Slim framework.
post('/', function (Request $request, Response $response): Response < $data = $request->getParsedBody(); $name = $data['name']; $message = $data['message']; if ($name == null) < $name = 'guest'; >if ($message == null) < $message = 'hello there'; >$output = "$name says: $message"; $response->getBody()->write($output); return $response; >); $app->run();
We get the POST parameters and return a response in Slim.
$data = $request->getParsedBody();
The POST parameters are retrieved with getParsedBody .
$ php -S localhost:8000 -t public
$ curl -d "name=Lucia" localhost:8000 Lucia says: hello there
We generate a POST request with curl.
PHP GET request in Laravel
In the following example, we process a GET request in Laravel.
$ laravel new larareq $ cd larareq
We create a new Laravel application.
query('name', 'guest'); $message = $request->query('message', 'hello there'); $output = "$name says $message"; return $output; >);
We get the GET parameters and create a response.
$ curl 'localhost:8000/?name=Lucia&message=Cau' Lucia says Cau
We send a GET request with curl.
PHP POST request in Laravel
In the following example, we send a POST request from an HTML form.
We have a POST form in a Blade template. Laravel requires CSRF protection for POST requests. We enable CSRF protection with @csrf .
); Route::post('/process_form', function (Request $request) < $request->validate([ 'name' => 'required|min:2', 'message' => 'required|min:3' ]); $name = $request->input('name'); $message = $request->input('message'); $output = "$name says: $message"; return $output; >);
We validate and retrieve the POST parameters and send them in the response. This example should be tested in a browser.
In this tutorial, we have worked with GET and POST requests in plain PHP, Symfony, Slim, and Laravel.