Using CURL to post JSON with PHP variables

Question

I'm trying to set up account creation via a payment form on my website using ZenDesk's API. The example code they give is:

curl -v -u {email_address}:{password} https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com/api/v2/users.json \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST -d '{"user": {"name": "Roger Wilco",     "email": "roge@example.org"}}'

Since I need to include PHP variables, I'm trying to use this:

$data = array("name" => $entry["1"], "email" => $entry["3"], "role" => "end-user");                                                                    
$data_string = json_encode($data); 

$ch = curl_init('https://xxxx.zendesk.com/api/v2/users.json');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "xxxx@example.com:xxxx");                                                                      
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "POST");                                                                     
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data_string);                                                                  
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);                                                                      
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(                                                                          
'Content-Type: application/json',                                                                                
'Content-Length: ' . strlen($data_string))                                                                       
);                                                                                                                   

$result = curl_exec($ch);

However, it's not working. Is my code correct in terms of duplicating the function of the first snippet?

Answer 1

I found another example of ZenDesk's API and was able to come up with this:

<?PHP
define("ZDAPIKEY", "SECRETKEYGOESHERE");
define("ZDUSER", "me@mysite.com");
define("ZDURL", "https://mysite.zendesk.com/api/v2");

/* Note: do not put a trailing slash at the end of v2 */

function curlWrap($url, $json, $action)
{
  $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS, 10 );
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, ZDURL.$url);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, ZDUSER."/token:".ZDAPIKEY);
    switch($action){
            case "POST":
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "POST");
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $json);
            break;
        case "GET":
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "GET");
            break;
        case "PUT":
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "PUT");
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $json);
        default:
            break;
    }
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-type: application/json'));
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, "MozillaXYZ/1.0");
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 10);
    $output = curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close($ch);
    $decoded = json_decode($output);
    return $decoded;
}

$arr = array("z_name"=>$namevariable,
       "z_email"=>$emailvariable,
       "z_role"=>"end_user",
       "z_verified"=>"yes"
      );
$create = json_encode(array('user' => array('name' => $arr['z_name'], 'email' =>     $arr['z_email'], 'role' => $arr['z_role'])), JSON_FORCE_OBJECT);
$data = curlWrap("/users.json", $create, "POST");
var_dump($data);
?>

It appears to be working on its own, so this answers the question as it exists here.

Thanks for your help everyone :)

Answer 2

I know the question is answered, but since I found it while having the same issue and since it did not solve my issue, I figured I'd post what I did. Hopefully, it can help someone else.

Here is the combination that worked for me in a case where I had to submit json data via PUT:

        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FRESH_CONNECT, TRUE);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 90);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $json);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-type: application/json', 'Content-Length: ' . strlen($json), 'X-HTTP-Method-Override: PUT'));

Note that it does NOT require CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST or CURLOPT_PUT since the X-HTTP-Method-Override: PUT parameter takes care of that.