How to send a POST request in PHP? The answer is to use the cURL library. 1. Initialize the cURL handle; 2. Set the target URL, enable return transfer, enable POST method and specify POST data; 3. Optionally set custom request headers; 4. Execute request and process responses; 5. Check for error messages; 6. Close the cURL handle. When sending data, you can use array or JSON format. If you are JSON, you need to manually set the Content-Type header; if HTTPS requests encounter SSL certificate problems, you can turn off verification in the test environment, but the production environment should avoid it. Examples include normal form submission and JSON data submission.

Sending a POST request is a common requirement for many PHP developers when doing interface docking. Using cURL is a stable and compatible way to accomplish this task. Below is a practical PHP function for sending POST requests with data.

How to send a POST request in PHP?

The core idea of using cURL to send POST requests in PHP is to initialize a cURL handle, set relevant options, and then execute the request. This method is suitable for calling APIs, submitting forms and other scenarios.

A common cURL POST function

Here is a packaged function that you can copy directly into the project:

 function send_post_request($url, $data, $headers = []) {
    $ch = curl_init();

    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);

    // Set custom headers (optional)
    if (!empty($headers)) {
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
    }

    $response = curl_exec($ch);

    if (curl_errno($ch)) {
        echo 'cURL error: ' . curl_error($ch);
    }

    curl_close($ch);

    return $response;
}

Instructions for use:

• $url : destination address, such as https://api.example.com/endpoint
• $data : The POST data to be sent can be an array or a string in key=value format
• $headers : optional parameter to set request headers such as Content-Type or Authorization

Frequently Asked Questions and Notes

Processing of data formats

• If it is a normal form submission, $data can be written as an array, for example:

   $data = [
      'username' => 'test',
      'password' => '123456'
  ];

  cURL will automatically encode it as application/x-www-form-urlencoded .

  

• If you want to send JSON data, you need to manually set the header and data format:

   $data = json_encode(['key' => 'value']);
  $headers = ['Content-Type: application/json'];

Check for error messages

If the request fails, remember to check curl_errno($ch) and curl_error($ch) as this can help you quickly locate network or configuration problems.

SSL certificate issues (commonly found in HTTPS requests)

If you encounter an SSL error, you can add this line to ignore the certificate verification (test environment only):

 curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

However, do not turn off certificate verification at will in production environments, otherwise it may bring security risks.

Actual call example

 $url = 'https://api.example.com/submit';
$data = ['name' => 'John', 'email' => 'john@example.com'];

$response = send_post_request($url, $data);
echo $response;

If sending JSON data:

 $data = json_encode(['token' => 'abc123']);
$headers = ['Content-Type: application/json'];

$response = send_post_request($url, $data, $headers);

Basically that's it. Although this function is simple, it can meet most POST request scenarios. When encountering complex needs, you can make corresponding adjustments based on the specific interface documents.

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