How do I access PHP REST API PUT data on the server side?

Question 1

-- Question --

I am just starting out with the REST API and am getting pretty confused.

This is what my PHP cRUL client-side looks like for a PUT.

case 'PUT':
    curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, 'PUT');
    curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
    break;

Now when I look at the server my $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] shows PUT, but my question is how do I get the $data I sent with CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS.

All I need to do is get the $data sent with a PUT request into the next line. Like

$value = $data['curl_data'];

I have seen so much clutter on this topic that it is giving me a headache. It seems so easy on the php client side, but no one has answers that are working for the php server side.

Thanks for any help!

-- Answer (after help and homework) --

I am new so I can't answer my own question until after 8 hours... odd :)

Okay, after working with the great people here I have to say we ran into the answer. I am kicking myself for it being so easy, at the same time it was confusing.

curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, 'PUT');
curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query($data));

The first change (above) I had to add http_build_query() around $data. This took my data from an array to a url friendly string.

Next up I had to add.

parse_str(file_get_contents('php://input'), $put);

Now I can do things like $put['data'].

The answer PaulPRO gave above does work to get the data the same way file_get_contents() did with less lines. We got stuck trying to figure out how to parse the data which was where my lack of http_build_query() I had seen on another site kicked into play.

So This is how it all works.

Data is put into a normal array.
http_build_query() converts it into a nice almost GET like string.
file_get_contents() transports it from the client to the server.
parse_str() then turns it back into an array.

I am seeing a lot of messages about using PUT to send files. I can see how this would work, but from what I read in this entire REST process was that PUT is to update data as post is to create data. Maybe I am mistaken. Am I missing something?

Question 2

From the PHP Manual:

PUT data comes from stdin:

$putdatafp = fopen("php://input", "r");

Example usage:

$putfp = fopen('php://input', 'r');
$putdata = '';
while($data = fread($putfp, 1024))
    $putdata .= $data;
fclose($putfp);

Question 3

You need to handle authentication and authorization for your APIs.

These are very basic steps to understand the solution:

Client calls login API using user credentials(username, password).
Server authenticates user credentials and generates a token.
Server stores this token in database against authenticated user id and responds to client.
Server already has authorization role rights to access different APIs associated with this authenticated user in database.
Client calls resource APIs using token provided by login API.
Server verify token in database and fetch user and user role rights against this token for authorization.
Resource APIs authorize and provides required data or perform actions according to authenticated user role rights.

There are multiple ways to achieve this in standardize way:

3 Common Methods of API Authentication Explained
JSON Web Token
oAuth2.0

Question 4

I had the same error message.

For me it occured when the javascript code receieved the response from my CREATE_PAYMENT_URL ajax request.

The response I was sending back from the server was not valid JSON so when it came time to execute onAuthorize data.paymentID and data.payerID were not available.

I suggests using console.log(data) just above the return statement in onAuthorize to make sure the data json object has a paymentId and payerId.

If not then it may be that your previoius CREATE_PAYMENT_URL is not returning the payment id.

The responses should be json. For example a valid create payment response:

{"id":"PAY-5T1130394T551090NLGRLACY"}

Hope that helps.

Question 5

Depending upon your preferred method of modifying PHP variables (Apache's config, .htaccess), change the session.cookie_domain value to be a consistent value.

I have multiple sub-domains, and each VirtualHost section in the Apache config file contains the following line:

php_value session.cookie_domain mydomain.com

The syntax should be similar if you make the changes in a .htaccess file.

Updated for bobert5064's comment:

For multiple domains (ie domain1.com, domain2.org), I think it is only necessary to choose a common domain name (ie domain1.com). I have never tried this, so I cannot verify that it works, but the logic seems accurate.

There is also a method to set the variables direction in PHP described at http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.session-set-cookie-params.php. The documentation makes no reference to the ability or inability to set cookies on a different domain.

Question 6

First of all you should read up on and learn how to use Jersey. This is the best implementation of JAX-RS API (REST for Java).

You will also need a good HTTP server and Java Servlet container. For that I'd advise you to use Jetty. Here are a few good tutorials:

Crunchify: Build RESTful Service in Java using JAX-RS and Jersey (Celsius to Fahrenheit & Fahrenheit to Celsius)
Vogella: REST with Java (JAX-RS) using Jersey - Tutorial

You asked for a "simple server", however if you're looking for high performance then read this tutorial: Javarants: Using JAX-RS with Protocol Buffers for high-performance REST APIs, and use the Grizzly container instead of Jetty:

How do I access PHP REST API PUT data on the server side?

Answers

php,rest,server-side,put