Python requests allows urlencode but not json

Question

I have a test environment of two Linux machines - one with with a PHP script, the other with a python script. I am trying to send an array of dictionaries as a JSON to the PHP script using the python. At this point, the PHP script does nothing but print what it received:

// Contents of set-data.php
<?php print_r ($_POST); ?>

The python script is as follows:

# Contents of test.py
import requests
import json

headers = {
  'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}
url = "http://mylocation/api/set-data.php"
payload = {'data': '[{"1": "Test_1", "2": "test_2"}]'}
   
response = requests.request("POST", url, headers=headers, data=payload)
print(response.text)

No matter how I run this in my test environment, the response is empty

// Result from set-data.php
Array
(
)

I have tried to change the data field in the request to json, tried to set the payload to a json.dumps object, and various other techniques, but nothing seems to work. However, if I send this information as a urlencoded form from the python script, it works.

headers = {
  'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
}
payload='data=%5B%7B%221%22%3A%20%22Test_1%22%2C%20%222%22%3A%20%22test_2%22%7D%5D'

I know that the machine running the PHP script is accepting the JSON because when I do this from my location machine using Postman the result is correct.

// Result from set-data.php sending from local machine
Array
(
    [data] => [{"1": "Test_1", "2": "test_2"}]
)

Does anyone know why? I think something may be misconfigured on the python machine, but what?

Try with `print_r(file_get_contents("php://input"));` instead of `$_POST`; — Felippe Duarte, Jan 20 '21 at 16:00
@FelippeDuarte that does prove that the data is getting there - the data does print. But why does that happen? — Apolymoxic, Jan 20 '21 at 16:15
See here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8893574/php-php-input-vs-post — Felippe Duarte, Jan 20 '21 at 16:18
Ah. But do you know why it works using Postman, but not in the Linux environment? — Apolymoxic, Jan 20 '21 at 16:22
Doesn't matter if it's postman or python script. The HTTP protocol expects some Content-Type header and PHP will use it to populate $_POST or php://input — Felippe Duarte, Jan 20 '21 at 16:23

Python requests allows urlencode but not json

0 Answers0