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Receiving and handling a GET request in PHP

Answer 1

+1 A:

I am not sure whether I'm missing a point, but is this very simple script a start?

<?php

  echo $_GET["request_name"];

 ?>

this will output the GET parameter request_name and (implicitly) send a 200.

Pekka 2010-01-26 19:20:01

That was the first thing I tried. The GET request is suppose to include a parameter called "hub.challenge". So I used $_GET and the tried writing the value to a txt file. I added a string as well, and it does reach the callback as it shows the string in the txt file but not the value from the parameter using $_GET.

2010-01-26 19:25:22

$request = $_GET['hub.challenge'];fh = fopen('test.txt, 'a') or die("can't open file");fwrite($fh, 'Test: '.$request);fclose($fh);

2010-01-26 19:27:16

Hmm. That looks o.k. and should definitely output a GET parameter of that name. The dot in the variable name shouldn't be a problem either. Can you confirm first that your script is acutally being called with the parameter, for example by checking the access logs? What is your PHP version?

Pekka 2010-01-26 19:29:18

@transient-jet-lag: did you copy and paste that code? you're missing a `$` somewhere ... :)

munch 2010-01-26 19:34:52

@transient-jet-lag - what do you see with print_r(); ?

Jay Zeng 2010-01-26 19:36:05

2010-01-26 19:38:53

@munch, typo, I typed it.

2010-01-26 19:39:36

That looks all right. Can you follow @Jay Zeng's advice? You can write the result of the print_r operation into a file: `fwrite($fh, print_r($_GET, true));`

Pekka 2010-01-26 19:43:50

Well now that's just sad, documentation and log specifies it as 'hub.challenge' and the print_r shows that it's hub_challenge.. Thanks everyone. Why is it almost always the most simple things?!?

2010-01-26 19:47:14

Strange. Could that be PHP turning the `.` into a `_` to make it accessible as a variable (dots are forbidden in PHP variable names) It would be the first time that I hear this, though. On the other hand, the docs could lie but the logs won't.

Pekka 2010-01-26 19:49:46

Yeah, I don't know what's going on with that either.. But at least now I can concentrate on echoing the request.. I think I know how, so I'll give you the credit.

2010-01-26 19:53:29

Note: Dots and spaces in variable names are converted to underscores. For example <input name="a.b" /> becomes $_REQUEST["a_b"]. From PHP doc.

2010-01-26 19:56:24

Ooh, didn't know that! Very good to know. Thanks for the information.

Pekka 2010-01-26 19:57:50

"<input name="a.b" /> becomes $_REQUEST["a_b"]" - weird, don't know this before. Thanks for sharing.

Jay Zeng 2010-01-26 20:43:38

@transient-jet-lag - by the way, what version of PHP are you running?

Jay Zeng 2010-01-26 20:45:29

Version is 5.2.6

2010-01-26 21:06:21

Answer 2

A:

There was recently a thread on the php-dev mailing list about this. The reason you can't access 'hub.challenge' in the $_GET superglobal is due to register_globals. Basically PHP cleans up any argument names before creating the superglobals. Any dots will be converted to underscores. It's looking to be 'fixed' in PHP 6, but not before due to BC issues.

Here's the thread about it.

James Logsdon 2010-01-26 20:02:29

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Receiving and handling a GET request in PHP

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