How to Send HTTP POST Data Directly from PHP Code?

HTTP POST Data Handling in PHP

When sending form data to a web server, the common approach involves using an HTML form that submits the data via HTTP POST. However, in certain scenarios, you may need to send POST data directly from PHP code without relying on a form.

Direct POST Data Submission

To transmit POST data without a form in PHP, a method known as cURL (Client URL Library) can be employed. Here's how you can do it:

$url = 'http://www.example.com';
$postData = [
    'myVar1' => 'value1',
    'myVar2' => 'value2'
];

$postFields = http_build_query($postData);

$curl = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $postFields);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
curl_close($curl);

In this example, we define a URL, $url, and populate a PHP array, $postData, with the key-value pairs we want to send. Using http_build_query(), we convert the array into an HTTP-formatted query string, which is then assigned to $postFields.

We initialize the curl handle and set its CURLOPT_POST option to true to indicate that we're sending POST data. The CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS option specifies the data to be sent. We also set various other options, such as CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION (which follows redirects), CURLOPT_HEADER (which suppresses HTTP headers from the response), and CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER (which makes curl_exec() return the response).

Finally, we execute the curl request with curl_exec() and store the response in the $response variable. This response can then be parsed or processed as per your requirements.

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