How to Create/Read HTTP POST request

This post is actually a follow-up to my last one called http post streaming where I tried to create a php class that provides a way to send a HTTP POST request. I recoded the class and added new features (e.g. a way to read the body of an HTTP request, a dynamic way of setting the headers fields…etc.).

The body of an HTTP request can be easily read from php by using php://input stream. This stream return the raw POST data.

The phpWebRequest class is still under developpment but I post it because it may help some of you. (Of course anytime I add a feature I will update this post)

TO DO:

• Finish the DataReaderFactory so we can use either read from an url or file to create the body of the request.
• Create an HTTPs support

 

phpWebRequest
 

<?php
/*
PhpWebRequest objects provide methods to send or read HTTP requests
Date: June-08
Author: Guillaume Nachury
Version: 0.1

*/

class PhpWebRequest{
//VERSION
var $version = "0.1";

//HTTP
var $boundary;
var $method;
var $header;
var $body;
var $protocol;
var $headerElements; 

//SERVER
var $address;
var $path;
var $port;

var $isOverSSL = false;

//FEED
var $xml;

/**
* InitServer()
* $a = server address
* $p = path to the ressource
* $prt = port (by default 80)
*/
function InitServer($a,$p,$prt=80){
$this->address = $a;
$this->path = $p;
$this->port = $prt;
}

/**
* InitRequest()
* $m = the HTTP method you wanna use
* $secured = in case we use HTTPS
* $bounds = a string to create a boundary (unused since v 0.1)
*/
function InitRequest($m, $secured = false, $bounds="PhpWebRequest"){
$this->method = $m;
$this->boundary = md5($bounds);
$this->isOverSSL = $secured;
if($this->isOverSSL === false){
$this->protocol = "HTTP/1.1";
}
else{
$this->protocol = "HTTPS";
}
}

/**
* DataReaderFactory()
* a factory that can read data from either a file, an URL or a String to be used as the content of the request
* $u = the path to the data ( for a file start with file://
* for an URL start with http://
* for string just enter chars)
*/
function DataReaderFactory($u){
//if we wanna read from a file
if(strpos($u,'file://' ) === true){

}
//or from a remote web page
elseif(strpos($u,'http://' ) === true){

}
//a string have been passed
else{
$this->xml=$u;
return strlen($this->xml);
}
}

/**
* CfgHeader()
* Create the HTTP header fields
* $attributesArray = an array of headers that MUST have keys
* keys = field name
* value = field calue
*/
function CfgHeader($attributesArray){
while(list($k,$v) = each($attributesArray)){
$this->headerElements .= $k.": ".$v."\n";
}
}

/**
* CraftRequest()
* Create a HTTP request
*/
function CraftRequest(){
$this->header = $this->method." ".$this->path." ".$this->protocol. "\n".$this->headerElements."\n";
$this->body = $this->xml."\n";
}

/**
* SendRequest()
* Send the request, return true if successfully sent
*/
function SendRequest(){
$this->CraftRequest();
$request = $this->header.$this->body;

$fs = fsockopen($this->address,$this->port);
if(!$fs){
return false;
}
else{
fputs($fs,$request);
fflush($fs);
fclose($fs);
return true;
}

}

/**
* readHTTPRequest()
* return the HTTP request BODY
*/
function readHTTPRequest(){
return @file_get_contents('php://input');
}

}
?>

Usage :

<?php
require_once('phpWebRequest.class.php');

$rq = new PhpWebRequest();
$rq->InitServer("127.0.0.1","/aPath/test.php");
$strSize = $rq->DataReaderFactory("the body of the request");
$rq->InitRequest("POST");

//header fields
$headerElements = array("Host" => "127.0.0.1",
"Connection" => "Close",
"Content-type" => "multipart/mixed",
"Content-length" => $strSize
);
//load the headers
$rq->CfgHeader($headerElements);

//send it
if($rq->SendRequest()){
echo "Request sent !";
}
else{
echo "ERROR";
}

?>

If you have any question feel free to send me an email.

Advertisements