Using data as result of Curl call?

PHP
1

I’d like to make a curl call using basic auth in PHP, and parse the JSON it returns.

I put the url and basic auth info into Postman, and Postman gets the JSON back.

However, when I try to do it with PHP on my machine, I don’t get anything.

<?php
// Initializing curl
$curl = curl_init();

// Sending GET request to reqres.in
// server to get JSON data
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL,
    "https://UserName:Password@myurl.com/api/contacts/1");

// Telling curl to store JSON
// data in a variable instead
// of dumping on screen
curl_setopt($curl,
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, false);

// Executing curl
$response = curl_exec($curl);

// Checking if any error occurs
// during request or not
if($e = curl_error($curl)) {
    echo $e;
} else {
    // Decoding JSON data
    $decodedData =
        json_decode($response, true);

    // Outputting JSON data in
    // Decoded form
    var_dump($decodedData);
}

// Closing curl
curl_close($curl);
?>

Returns NULL

3

What is in $response when you var_dump() it just after it returns?

4

Try setting CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER to true instead of false.

5

Although you’re correct, I wonder why the OP doesn’t get all the response displayed in the browser screen with their current settings. Doesn’t really tally with “I don’t get anything”.

1 Like
6

@droopsnoot That URL format does not look correct to me.

7

Strictly speaking, the URL format is correct to RFC1738 standards for HTTP traffic. Whether the CURL parser translates it into the appropriate header or not is another question.

curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "Username:Password");
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH, CURLAUTH_BASIC);

would be the correct way to define it in PHP-cURL definitions.

2 Likes
8

I’m just running the script from the commandline. I don’t have the code running on a site.

9

With the code below, I don’t get anything back at all… ```<?php

// Initializing curl
$curl = curl_init();

// Sending GET request to reqres.in
// server to get JSON data
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL,“myurl.com/api/endpoint”);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_USERPWD, “myusername:mypassword”);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH, CURLAUTH_BASIC);

// Telling curl to store JSON
// data in a variable instead
// of dumping on screen
curl_setopt($curl,
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

// Executing curl
$response = curl_exec($curl);
return curl_exec($curl);
echo($response);

// Checking if any error occurs
// during request or not
if($e = curl_error($curl)) {
echo $e;
} else {
var_dump($response);
// Decoding JSON data
$decodedData =
json_decode($response, true);

// Outputting JSON data in
// Decoded form
var_dump($decodedData);

}

// Closing curl
curl_close($curl);
?>

10

That’s because you call curl_exec() and assign the response to $response, then your next line is a return which terminates execution before you try to echo $response.

1 Like
12

Ahh okay, that makes sense.

When I instead use `$response = curl_exec($curl);

echo($response);`

I get bool(false)

13

I feel like that’s $decodedData’s var_dump…

14

Try adding this:

curl_setopt($curl,CURLOPT_FAILONERROR,true);

15

OK, that means that the call to curl_exec() failed. Are you certain that everything is exactly as you had it when it worked from Postman?

Have you tried exporting your successful Postman test as Curl? I’ve never used it, but a quick search suggests that it’s easy to do.

17

By the way if you having trouble with curl try using Guzzle

18

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