How to access a variable passed from AngularJS via http in PHP?

Question

I am passing an object into a PHP script like this:

$http({
    method: 'POST',
    url: 'updateCoins.php',
    data: {flips: $scope.data.flips, error: $scope.data.pe},
})

In my PHP script I tried:

$data = file_get_contents("php://input");

and

$data = json_decode(file_get_contents("php://input"));

I then tried echoing back the received value like this:

echo $data.flips

or

echo $data[flips]

or

echo $data->flips

I keep on getting either a blank result or the word "flips" back. How do I access those variables?

There's no reason to use $_POST over php://input, especially if you're sending JSON -- you're fine with what you're doing there already. Try dumping $data to see what's actually in it — Kai
– Kai, Commented Jul 23, 2017 at 20:30

BeetleJuice · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-23 20:33:57Z

2

If the data was sent JSON-encoded, then it would make sense to json_decode(). I suspect that your data is x-www-form-urlencoded (eg: name=john&age=7). In this case, PHP parses it into the $_POST array for you. If you wish to do it on your own, and handle either case, you could do something like:

// Read content-type to determine whether it's JSON data
$type = $_SERVER["CONTENT_TYPE"];
$content = file_get_contents('php://input');

if(strpos($type,'json') > -1):
    $data = json_decode($content, true);
else:
    parse_str($content, $data);
endif;

print_r($data);

You can always visually inspect the data with echo file_get_contents('php://input');

answered Jul 23, 2017 at 20:33

BeetleJuice

41.1k24 gold badges120 silver badges181 bronze badges

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

2 Comments

shurup Over a year ago

When I try to echo 'file_get_contents', I get this error in the console: POST msolonko.net/updateCoins.php 500 (Internal Server Error) AND Possibly unhandled rejection: {"data":"","status":500,"config":{"method":"POST","transformRequest":[null],"transformResponse":[null],"jsonpCallbackParam":"callback","url":"updateCoins.php","data":{"flips":10,"error":20},"headers":{"Accept":"application/json, text/plain, /","Content-Type":"application/json;charset=utf-8"}},"statusText":"Internal Server Error"}

shurup Over a year ago

My data is in JSON - your code helped me realize that and then I used print_r to see the array structure.

Altimus Prime · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-23 20:58:28Z

1

Php won't grab the posted data from $_POST if the post is formatted in json. You can serialize the post data and submit it thusly

var data = 'flips='+$scope.data.flips+'&error='+$scope.data.pe;

$http({
    method: 'POST',
    url: 'updateCoins.php',
    headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'},
    data: data
});

OR you can do like BeetleJuice recommended. In my application I just do the following so that the rest of the code is uninterrupted.

if (empty($_POST) && file_get_contents('php://input')!==""){
    $_POST = json_decode(file_get_contents('php://input'), true);
}

at which point you can access it with $_POST['flips'] and $_POST['error']

edited Jul 23, 2017 at 20:58

answered Jul 23, 2017 at 20:52

Altimus Prime

2,3672 gold badges31 silver badges49 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to access a variable passed from AngularJS via http in PHP?

2 Answers 2

2 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

2 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related