How to make a JSON Curl request to an api url, getting null

Question

This should be simple I think but I just can't fathom it.

I need to make a request to a url in the following format:

http://ratings.api.co.uk/business/{lang}/{fhrsid}/{format} where lang will be set to en-GB the fhrsid is an identifier and format is json.

I tried the following but I am just getting null in return:

$data = array("lang" => "en-GB", "fhrsid" => "80928");                                                                    
$data_string = json_encode($data);            


$ch = curl_init('http://ratings.api.co.uk/business/json');                                                                      
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "POST");                                                                     
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data_string);                                                                  
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);                                                                      
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(                                                                          
'Content-Type: application/json',
'Content-Length: ' . strlen($data_string))                                                 );                                                                                                                   

$Jsonresult = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

var_dump(json_decode($Jsonresult));

Any help gratefully received

If you say you need to send a request to /business/en-GB/80928/json, why are you sending it to /business/json? — rid
– rid, Commented May 14, 2012 at 14:44
My question still applies... You explicitly say that you need to send requests to the URL /business/lang/fhrsid/format. But you send requests to the URL /business/json... — rid
– rid, Commented May 14, 2012 at 14:48

Sjoerd · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-14 14:46:17Z

2

You are currently posting the data to the URL, while you say you want to put the data in the URL itself.

I.e. now you submit {"lang:"en-GB","fhrsid":80928} to the URL http://ratings.api.co.uk/business/json, but instead you want to retrieve the URL http://ratings.api.co.uk/business/en-GB/80928/json.

Don't use POST as request type, don't specify postfields, don't specify content-length, and do put the data in your URL.

answered May 14, 2012 at 14:46

Sjoerd

75.9k16 gold badges140 silver badges180 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Kristian · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-14 14:46:59Z

2

Sending data as arguments is different than sending it within the URL.

If you require a url format of http://ratings.api.co.uk/{lang}/{fhrsid}/{format}, then you must make your curl_init string match that format.

answered May 14, 2012 at 14:46

Kristian

22k19 gold badges108 silver badges184 bronze badges

1 Comment

Textus Over a year ago

of course....duh, thanks so much, that's what the arrival of a new born child does to your brain.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to make a JSON Curl request to an api url, getting null

2 Answers 2

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related