Coop API - posting with PHP

Question

I'm trying to do a simple post to a web service using CURL and their API but I'm getting a 422 response. My code looks like:

include 'CurlRequest.php';

$secret_key = 'mykeyhere';
$group_id = 'group_id';

$postData = array(
    'group_id' => $group_id,
    'key' => $secret_key,
    'status' => 'test'
);

$curl = new CurlRequest('http://coopapp.com/statuses/update.json');
$curl->exec(array(
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode($postData)
));

I'm using an existing Curl Library to handle the posts. I'm sure it has something to do with the way I'm formatting the POST url (I've tried a bunch of different ways) or the way I'm posting the data.

Their docs are here: http://coopapp.com/api/statuses

Thanks!

Answer 1

I don't think you should json_decode() the POSTFIELDS data, should you? The response will be JSON, but the input is expected as POST fields. According to the manual:

The full data to post in a HTTP "POST" operation. To post a file, prepend a filename with @ and use the full path. This can either be passed as a urlencoded string like 'para1=val1&para2=val2&...' or as an array with the field name as key and field data as value. If value is an array, the Content-Type header will be set to multipart/form-data.

this should work:

$curl = new CurlRequest('http://coopapp.com/statuses/update.json');
$curl->exec(array(
  CURLOPT_POST => true,
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $postData
));

Answer 2

The HTTP error seems odd for an API like this.

The Co-Op API doc is a bit... well.. confusing on the status update, as it talks about POSTing the data, but the example shows a query string. What you could do, is try putting the stuff in the query string, or not using CURL. PHP's file_get_contents is actually a usable HTTP client, if you pass it enough parameters. So try this:

$params = array(
    'group_id' => $group_id,
    'secret_key' => $secret_key,
    'status' => 'test'
);
$context = stream_context_create(
   array(
    'http' => array(
     'method' => 'POST'
   ))
);
file_get_contents("http://coopapp.com/statuses/update.json?" .
   http_build_query($params), false, $context);

And if that doesn't work, rule out CURL errors, by doing the same thing without CURL:

$params = array(
    'group_id' => $group_id,
    'secret_key' => $secret_key,
    'status' => 'test'
);
$context = stream_context_create(
   array('http' => array(
     'method' => 'POST',
     'content' => http_build_query($params)      
   ))
);
file_get_contents("http://coopapp.com/statuses/update.json", false, $context);

Note that I haven't tested the code, so some error-checking/fixes might be needed.

Answer 3

Here's a quote from the api page

POST /statuses/update.xml?group_id=#{group_id}&status=An%20encoded%20status&key=#{secret_key}

its supposed to be key not secret_key

$postData = array(
    'group_id' => $group_id,
    'key' => $secret_key,
    'status' => 'test'
);

Answer 4

422 is an error code, which is usually used when the request is valid, but can't be processed for some internal constraint. Look in the body of the response, which probably contains details about what went wrong.

Answer 5

The solution was a missing content-type of 'application/json'.

Here's the working code:

include 'CurlRequest.php';

$key = 'mykeyhere';
$group_id = '1234';

$status = 'Awesome status update';

$curl = new CurlRequest('http://coopapp.com/statuses/update.xml?group_id=' . $group_id . '&key=' . $key);
$curl->exec(array(
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode(array('status' => $status)),
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array("Content-Type: application/json")
 ));