IOS http POST requests seem to be empty

Question

I have an application written in objective-c which has to send data to a server via a http POST request. The server-side code is written in php. Apparently this code used to work but I cannot seem to integrate it properly. Right now for debugging purposes I am just trying to echo the Post Request back. Here is the important part of the php:

if($_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] === 'example'){
    define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');
}
else{
    define('DB_HOST', 'example.com');
}
print_r($_POST);
print_r($_REQUEST);
echo 'x'.$HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA;
echo 'this is a test';  
function getRealPOST() {
        $result = array();
        $b =  explode("&", urldecode(file_get_contents("php://input")));
    foreach($b as $k => $v)
    {
            list($ind, $val) = explode("=", $v);
       $result[$ind]  = $val;
    }
    return $result;
}

$post = getRealPOST()
echo "<pre>";
print_r($post);
die('here');

Here is the important parts of the objective-c code:

NSMutableDictionary *params = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
[params setValue:@"goleafsgo" forKey:@"password"];
[params setValue:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", API_VERSION] forKey:@"version"];
[params setValue:uuid forKey:@"uuid"];
[params setValue:@"save_sensor_data" forKey:@"request"];
[params setValue:sensorData forKey:@"sensor_data"];
NSData *jsonData = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:params options:kNilOptions error:nil];
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:API_URL cachePolicy:NSURLRequestReloadIgnoringLocalCacheData timeoutInterval:20];
[request setValue:@"application/json" forHTTPHeaderField:@"Accept"];
[request setValue:@"application/json" forHTTPHeaderField:@"Content-Type"];
[request setValue:@"json" forHTTPHeaderField:@"Data-Type"];
[request setValue:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d", [jsonData length]] forHTTPHeaderField:@"Content-Length"];
[request setHTTPBody:jsonData];
[request setHTTPMethod:@"POST"];
_urlConnection = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:request delegate:self];
if (_urlConnection) {
    // Create the NSMutableData that will hold the received data if necessary, otherwise clear   it out
    if (!_responseData)
        _responseData = [[NSMutableData alloc] init];
    } 
    else {
         NSLog(@"Connection error");
    }

I have tried several different ways to return the post information from the php but all I get are empty arrays followed by the testString when I use NSLogs. I also used a library to print the NSMutableURLRequest+CurlDescription:

2013-06-27 12:42:54.309 sensimatprototype[3453:907] Request String: Thursday, 27 June, 2013 12:42:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Request

curl -X POST -H "Data-Type: json" -H "Content-Length: 61" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Accept: application/json" "http://example.com/api/" -d "{"request":"last_entry","version":"1","password":"examplePassword"}"

When I print out the HTTPResponse allHeaderFields I get this:{ Connection = "keep-alive"; "Content-Length" = 52; "Content-Type" = "text/html"; Date = "Thu, 27 Jun 2013 16:42:53 GMT"; Server = "nginx admin"; "X-Cache" = "HIT from Backend"; "X-Powered-By" = "PHP/5.3.25"; }

I am at a loss. I 'm not even sure how to tell if the problem is on the server-side or the client side. If anyone could point out where I have gone wrong I would really appreciate it.

EDIT I added the getRealPOST function as suggested. I also tried using an HTML form to send data to see what would happen

Here is the form:`

<form action="http://sensimatsystems.com/api" method="post"
<input name="pasword" value="test"/>
<input name="lastTime" value="test2"/>
<input type="submit">
</form>

Here is what gets displayed: Array ( ) Array ( [adaptive_image] => 2560 [has_js] => 1 [_utma] => 231368128.879400039.1372276244.1372276244.1372276244.1 [_utmc] => 231368128 [__utmz] => 231368128.1372276244.1.1.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none) ) x

Array ( [] => ) here

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:21

I figured out the answer by running across this post here on stackoverflow: php $_POST empty on form submission.

Apparently the url needs to include "www" . So I changed the url in my constants file from http://ourwebsite.com/api to http://www.ourwebsite.com/api.

ETA: After I found this work around I found out there had been a change to the website which had the unintended consequences of turning all of the post requests into get requests somewhere between sending from the iphone and being read by the php.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 27 '13 at 18:06

Try this function in server side

    function getRealPOST() {
            $result = array();
            $b =  explode("&", urldecode(file_get_contents("php://input")));
        foreach($b as $k => $v)
        {
                list($ind, $val) = explode("=", $v);
           $result[$ind]  = $val;
        }
        return $result;
    }

$post = getRealPOST()
echo "<pre>";
print_r($post);

hope it will help to get post data in other way not using $_POST

I added that code and here is the result:x
Array ( [] => )
– MichelleJS Jun 28 '13 at 14:27 — MichelleJS, Jun 28 '13 at 14:27

IOS http POST requests seem to be empty

Request

2 Answers2