Get POST data from file_get_contents

Question

I followed this post to see how to pass data to php's file_get_contents function but I can't seem to get the data back using:

$data = $_POST['my_param']; // Where my_param is the name of the parameter passed

Does anybody know how to get back the value of the parameter sent to file_get_contents in the script that I'm calling with file_get_contents?

Thanks in advance

@dandavis Unless you put method = "POST" in the context object. — Barmar
Your question isn't clear. Are you asking how to access the parameters in the script you're calling with file_get_contents, or in the script that contains file_get_contents? — Barmar
@Barmar In the script that I'm calling with file_get_contents — user765368
Then $_POST['my_param'] should work. Please post the caller script. — Barmar

Lauri Orgla Lauri Orgla · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-09T21:16:51

There is example @ php.net http://php.net/manual/en/function.file-get-contents.php#102575

code:

<?php
/**
make an http POST request and return the response content and headers
@param string $url    url of the requested script
@param array $data    hash array of request variables
@return returns a hash array with response content and headers in the following form:
    array ('content'=>'<html></html>'
        , 'headers'=>array ('HTTP/1.1 200 OK', 'Connection: close', ...)
        )
*/
function http_post ($url, $data)
{
    $data_url = http_build_query ($data);
    $data_len = strlen ($data_url);

    return array ('content'=>file_get_contents ($url, false, stream_context_create (array ('http'=>array ('method'=>'POST'
            , 'header'=>"Connection: close\r\nContent-Length: $data_len\r\n"
            , 'content'=>$data_url
            ))))
        , 'headers'=>$http_response_header
        );
}
?>

But in real application i wouldn't use that approach. I would suggest you to use curl instead.

Simple example for curl:

<?php
  $ch = curl_init(); // create curl handle

  $url = "http://www.google.com";
  /**
   * For https, there are more options that you must define, these you can get from php.net 
   */
  curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL,$url);
  curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST, true);
  curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query(['array_of_your_post_data']));
  curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
  curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT ,3); //timeout in seconds
  curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 20); // same for here. Timeout in seconds.
  $response = curl_exec($ch);

  curl_close ($ch); //close curl handle

  echo $response;
?>

Using curl, you would get ur post parameters from $_POST 100% of the times. I have used curl in tens of projects, has never failed me before.

Get POST data from file_get_contents

1 Answers