How to easily send a POST request and receive + interpret JSON using PHP

Question

I'm using the Foursquare API and I need to make a request to their server in order to receive an access token in JSON form (https://developer.foursquare.com/overview/auth). How do I do this using PHP?

I haven't found any definitive tutorials online, which is why I'm asking here. I've seen some stuff to do with cURL which I don't really understand, so is there any easy way to do this? I have done it before using AJAX and it was very self explanatory, but it seems very complicated in PHP, far more than it needs to be by the looks of it :(

Can anyone help? Thanks

Do you need to send any special headers? Or it's a simple post request? — Tivie
– Tivie, Commented Jul 31, 2012 at 23:29
As far as I can tell it's just a simple post request, nothing special. Thanks :) — Taimur
– Taimur, Commented Jul 31, 2012 at 23:30

Tivie · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-31 23:42:02Z

1

Well, following the link you provided, try this:

Script in the redirect link(YOUR_REGISTERED_REDIRECT_URI)

if(isset($_GET['code']))
{
    $code = $_GET['code'];
    $url = "https://foursquare.com/oauth2/access_token?client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID&client_secret=YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET&grant_type=authorization_code&redirect_uri=YOUR_REGISTERED_REDIRECT_URI&code=$code";

    $ch = curl_init($url);

    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST);

    $json = curl_exec($ch);

    var_dump($json);
}

NOTE: After reading the tutorial you provided, I didn't see any reference to POST request, only request, so you can try this (instead of cURL)

$json = file_get_contents($url);

If it's a simple GET request, then file_get_contents will probably work.

answered Jul 31, 2012 at 23:42

Tivie

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3 Comments

Taimur Over a year ago

Thanks a lot for the reply, this is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for :) Would you mind guiding me through exactly what's going on with the curl stuff? Thanks

Taimur Over a year ago

The $json = file_get_contents($url); seems very nice, doesn't it need to be POST though since I'm sending my private key?

Tivie Over a year ago

Well I think so yes. It's seems that this API only needs a GET request, which PHP takes care by itself. The CODE, I believe, works as a first shake token. The response should be a valid json, or something similar.

Johndave Decano · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-31 23:35:07Z

<?php

# url_get_contents function by Andy Langton: http://andylangton.co.uk/

function url_get_contents($url,$useragent='cURL',$headers=false,$follow_redirects=false,$debug=false) {

# initialise the CURL library
$ch = curl_init();

# specify the URL to be retrieved
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,$url);

# we want to get the contents of the URL and store it in a variable
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);

# specify the useragent: this is a required courtesy to site owners
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, $useragent);

# ignore SSL errors
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

# return headers as requested
if ($headers==true){
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER,1);
}

# only return headers
if ($headers=='headers only') {
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_NOBODY ,1);
}

# follow redirects - note this is disabled by default in most PHP installs from 4.4.4 up
if ($follow_redirects==true) {
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1); 
}

# if debugging, return an array with CURL's debug info and the URL contents
if ($debug==true) {
$result['contents']=curl_exec($ch);
$result['info']=curl_getinfo($ch);
}

# otherwise just return the contents as a variable
else $result=curl_exec($ch);

# free resources
curl_close($ch);

# send back the data
return $result;
}

?>

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