PHP curl not sending post params

Question

I have an online form to submit data as http post. If no data is send as post , it will return the following error message

We are sorry, the form that you have submitted is invalid or no longer exists.

I am using the following code to send http post data using curl.But I am always getting the error message as output. How to resolve this issue.Did I miss anything.I printed the curl request, and the post parameters are not sent.How can I fix this? My code is given below

function curlUsingPost($url, $data)
{
  $content_type = 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded';

    if(empty($url) OR empty($data))
    {
        return 'Error: invalid Url or Data';
    }

    
    //url-ify the data for the POST
    $fields_string = '';
    foreach($data as $key=>$value) { $fields_string .= $key.'='.$value.'&'; }
    $fields_string = http_build_query($data).'\n';
    echo $fields_string;


    //open connection
    $ch = curl_init();

    //set the url, number of POST vars, POST data
 //   curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, ['Accept: ' . $content_type]);
 
 curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER,array($content_type));
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL,$url);
    
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST,true);
    curl_setopt( $curl_handle, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array( 'Expect:' ) );
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,$fields_string);

    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT,10); # timeout after 10 seconds, you can increase it
   //curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_HEADER,false);
        curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);  # Set curl to return the data instead of printing it to the browser.
   curl_setopt($ch,  CURLOPT_USERAGENT , "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1)"); # Some server may refuse your request if you dont pass user agent

   curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false); 
   
   
   $info = curl_getinfo($ch);
    
   print_r($info );
    //execute post
    $result = curl_exec($ch);



    //close connection
    curl_close($ch);
    return $result;
}


$url = 'office.promptip.com:8443/his1.max/Services/Webform.aspx?request=submitwebform&amp;token=202D36560E444E466658461615120F75411B09634C696C6F79454E795E7C7A5154505645414F456C584C17101B443D431D0B654D66686D7C454E795E2D7E5152565341404145625E4213141E4273421E5E66486B666F2A464B7A5B79785F54520645444F15635C454516134422421A0D664A3D68687C454E79587F7D5F52575714424043635E1611181D16704D1D0E654F69696F2A474A7A0A78785807525E45414E406350424016134422421A0D374C6F686C7C44482F59787D5E530150104218426D584316181A4177411B0F';
//echo $url;
$data = [
'C0IFirstName' => 'John Doe',
'C1ILastName' => 'Doe John',
'C2IPosition' =>'Father-Guardian',
'U3I80'=>'8129020464',
'U4I150'=>'[email protected]',
'U5I79'=>'This is the message buddy',
'U6I102' => 'Ann',
'U7I105' =>'Doe',
'U8I52' =>'FS1',
'C9IClientId'=> rand ( 0,100000 ),
'U10I21'=>'Website-Enquiry Form'

];

echo curlUsingPost($url,$data);

curl_setopt( $curl_handle, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array( 'Expect:' ) ); is wrong - the handle should be $ch in this case — Professor Abronsius
– Professor Abronsius, Commented Aug 13, 2015 at 9:38
ya I removed Expect: .Still it is not working.(Expect was added because of suggestion from an online link) — Jinu Joseph Daniel
– Jinu Joseph Daniel, Commented Aug 13, 2015 at 9:39
You can use implode function to concatenate the postfields instead of putting '&' at end, as this will end up in a extra '&' at last. — anuj arora
– anuj arora, Commented Aug 13, 2015 at 9:40
I'm unable to see the particular form that you are trying to submit on the url given - is it beyond the login page? — Professor Abronsius
– Professor Abronsius, Commented Aug 13, 2015 at 9:44

ptkoz · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-13 11:07:00Z

1

Solution

Add this to your curl request:

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);

And replace & with & in URL you're requesting:

$url = 'office.promptip.com:8443/his1.max/Services/Webform.aspx?request=submitwebform&token=202D36560E444E466658461615120F75411B09634C696C6F79454E795E7C7A5154505645414F456C584C17101B443D431D0B654D66686D7C454E795E2D7E5152565341404145625E4213141E4273421E5E66486B666F2A464B7A5B79785F54520645444F15635C454516134422421A0D664A3D68687C454E79587F7D5F52575714424043635E1611181D16704D1D0E654F69696F2A474A7A0A78785807525E45414E406350424016134422421A0D374C6F686C7C44482F59787D5E530150104218426D584316181A4177411B0F';

Explenation

At first, you're requesting wrong URL, which was probably copied from some HTML documentation. Normally a & entity would be replaced by & char by HTML interpreter, but this does not work with curl and you have to replace the entity manually.

Also the server returns

We are sorry, the form that you have submitted is invalid or no longer exists.

for each end every request in response body. But for successfull request it also provides a Location header. Normally browser would follow this location, make a second request and display success message. You have to tell cURL to do exactly the same with curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true).

edited Aug 13, 2015 at 11:07

answered Aug 13, 2015 at 10:56

ptkoz

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4 Comments

Jinu Joseph Daniel Over a year ago

Hi pamelus.Thank you for the response.Let me try this.Actually I was travelling.That's why I couln't respond immedietely

Jinu Joseph Daniel Over a year ago

Hi Pamelus.One more issue..It is working in my local mamp.But on server, it is returning nothing

ptkoz Over a year ago

What does the curl_error($ch) say? Remember to put curl_error after curl_exec.

Jinu Joseph Daniel Over a year ago

It says couldn't connect

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