Accessing a json api with php

Question

I'm trying to learn how I can interface with a json api. In the documentation they give me a curl example:

If I run this as a command it works fine, gives me my data in a json format.

I thought I was on the right track with this: PHP + curl, HTTP POST sample code?

but apparently not as I can't figure out what to do with the -H portion of this command.

curl -H "APIKey:My:ApI;key;" -H "Content-Type:.../json" "https://urlofapp.com/API/GetTransaction" -d "{ 'CustomerID':'12345','EndDate':'2018-12-31','StartDate':'2018-01-01'}" > test.json

Trying to get the result into an array that I can sum and show a total of their orders for the year.

From the link I provided above I was trying to start with this:

// set post fields
$post = [
'CustomerID' => 12345,
'StartDate' => 2018-01-01,
'EndDate'   => 2018-12-31,
];

$ch = curl_init('https://urlofapp.com/API/GetTransaction');
curl_setopt($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);

The `H` part in the command stands for HTTP header. – Pablo Jan 19 '19 at 05:35 — Pablo, Jan 19 '19 at 05:35
Show us your code. `H` is HTTP header. – Set Kyar Wa Lar Jan 19 '19 at 05:36 — Set Kyar Wa Lar, Jan 19 '19 at 05:36
what is your code so far? Can't help without code. – Pete Houston Jan 19 '19 at 05:55 — Pete Houston, Jan 19 '19 at 05:55
I have updated with what I have so far. – user3512531 Jan 19 '19 at 06:00 — user3512531, Jan 19 '19 at 06:00

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 19 '19 at 06:09

The -h command refers the header.

Try below code,

// Generated by curl-to-PHP: http://incarnate.github.io/curl-to-php/
$ch = curl_init();

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://urlofapp.com/API/GetTransaction');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "{ 'CustomerID':'12345','EndDate':'2018-12-31','StartDate':'2018-01-01'}");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);

$headers = array();
$headers[] = 'Apikey: My:ApI;key;';
$headers[] = 'Content-Type: application/json';
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);

$result = curl_exec($ch);
if (curl_errno($ch)) {
    echo 'Error:' . curl_error($ch);
}
curl_close ($ch);

I used below to convert the curl command to PHP script,

https://incarnate.github.io/curl-to-php/

Hope it would be useful.

To provide some context on -H "Content-Type:.../json". The reason Praneeth put "application/json" as this content type is because you are passing json encoded data to this API (your POST data). If you were to pass XML encoded data you would want to set this to "Content-Type: application/xml". This helps the API know how to parse your data. — Blane Townsend, Jan 19 '19 at 06:13

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 19 '19 at 06:32

Dealing with curl directly usually ends up being a pain. There are a number of libraries that can help making calls like that much simpler.

Here are a few:

Simple and straighforward: http://requests.ryanmccue.info/
Has everything you could ever possibly want: https://github.com/guzzle/guzzle

Accessing a json api with php

2 Answers2