How to switch from POST to GET in PHP CURL

7 down vote favorite 3

I have tried switching from a previous Post request to a Get request. Which assumes its a Get but eventually does a post. I tried the following in PHP : curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, null); curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POST, FALSE); curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_HTTPGET, TRUE); What am I missing? Additional information: I already have a connection that's setup to do a POST request. That completes successfully but later on when I try to reuse the connection and switch back to GET using the setopts above it still ends up doing a POST internally with incomplete POST headers. The problem is it believes its doing a GET but ends up putting a POST header without the content-length parameter and the connection fails witha 411 ERROR. php  post  curl  get share | edit edited  Aug 4 '09 at 18:56 asked  Aug 4 '09 at 1:50 gnosio 133 1 3 12

1   Be careful with Get requests. Google has fun with them. ;) –  Chris Lively  Aug 4 '09 at 2:11   @Chris - a friend discovered that the hard way when he built a site that managed user-contributed content via GET requests. Googlebot happily followed all the 'delete' links, with predictable results. –  Meredith L. Patterson  Aug 4 '09 at 18:59

4 Answers

active oldest votes

up vote 1 down vote	Here is a pretty decent example of the difference: http://www.weberdev.com/get_example-4606.html share | edit answered  Aug 4 '09 at 2:09 Eli 7,596 11 47 67

up vote 23 down vote

Make sure that you're putting your query string at the end of your URL when doing a GET request. $qry_str = "?x=10&y=20"; $ch = curl_init(); // Set query data here with the URL curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'http://example.com/test.php' . $qry_str); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, '3'); $content = trim(curl_exec($ch)); curl_close($ch); print $content; With a POST you pass the data via the CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS option instead of passing it in the CURLOPT__URL. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- $qry_str = "x=10&y=20"; curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'http://example.com/test.php'); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, '3'); // Set request method to POST curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1); // Set query data here with CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $qry_str); $content = trim(curl_exec($ch)); curl_close($ch); print $content; Note from the curl_setopt() docs for CURLOPT_HTTPGET (emphasis added): [Set CURLOPT_HTTPGET equal to] TRUE to reset the HTTP request method to GET.  Since GET is the default, this is only necessary if the request method has been changed. share | edit edited  Jan 10 '12 at 21:46 Wiseguy 6,566 2 12 39 answered  Aug 4 '09 at 2:43 RC. 13.3k 1 20 52

up vote 3 down vote accepted	Solved: The problem lies here. I set POST via both _CUSTOMREQUEST and _POST and the _CUSTOMREQUEST persisted as POST while _POST switched to _HTTPGET. The Server assumed the header from _CUSTOMREQUEST to be the right one and came back with a 411. curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, 'POST'); share | edit answered  Aug 4 '09 at 18:56 gnosio 133 1 3 12

up vote 5 down vote

Add this before calling curl_exec($curl_handle) curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, 'GET'); share | edit answered  May 4 '12 at 6:20 Bao Le 656 1 10 20

7 down vote favorite 3

I have tried switching from a previous Post request to a Get request. Which assumes its a Get but eventually does a post. I tried the following in PHP : curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, null); curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POST, FALSE); curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_HTTPGET, TRUE); What am I missing? Additional information: I already have a connection that's setup to do a POST request. That completes successfully but later on when I try to reuse the connection and switch back to GET using the setopts above it still ends up doing a POST internally with incomplete POST headers. The problem is it believes its doing a GET but ends up putting a POST header without the content-length parameter and the connection fails witha 411 ERROR. php  post  curl  get share | edit edited  Aug 4 '09 at 18:56 asked  Aug 4 '09 at 1:50 gnosio 133 1 3 12

1   Be careful with Get requests. Google has fun with them. ;) –  Chris Lively  Aug 4 '09 at 2:11   @Chris - a friend discovered that the hard way when he built a site that managed user-contributed content via GET requests. Googlebot happily followed all the 'delete' links, with predictable results. –  Meredith L. Patterson  Aug 4 '09 at 18:59

4 Answers

active oldest votes

up vote 1 down vote	Here is a pretty decent example of the difference: http://www.weberdev.com/get_example-4606.html share | edit answered  Aug 4 '09 at 2:09 Eli 7,596 11 47 67

up vote 23 down vote

Make sure that you're putting your query string at the end of your URL when doing a GET request. $qry_str = "?x=10&y=20"; $ch = curl_init(); // Set query data here with the URL curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'http://example.com/test.php' . $qry_str); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, '3'); $content = trim(curl_exec($ch)); curl_close($ch); print $content; With a POST you pass the data via the CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS option instead of passing it in the CURLOPT__URL. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- $qry_str = "x=10&y=20"; curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'http://example.com/test.php'); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, '3'); // Set request method to POST curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1); // Set query data here with CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $qry_str); $content = trim(curl_exec($ch)); curl_close($ch); print $content; Note from the curl_setopt() docs for CURLOPT_HTTPGET (emphasis added): [Set CURLOPT_HTTPGET equal to] TRUE to reset the HTTP request method to GET.  Since GET is the default, this is only necessary if the request method has been changed. share | edit edited  Jan 10 '12 at 21:46 Wiseguy 6,566 2 12 39 answered  Aug 4 '09 at 2:43 RC. 13.3k 1 20 52

up vote 3 down vote accepted	Solved: The problem lies here. I set POST via both _CUSTOMREQUEST and _POST and the _CUSTOMREQUEST persisted as POST while _POST switched to _HTTPGET. The Server assumed the header from _CUSTOMREQUEST to be the right one and came back with a 411. curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, 'POST'); share | edit answered  Aug 4 '09 at 18:56 gnosio 133 1 3 12

up vote 5 down vote

Add this before calling curl_exec($curl_handle) curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, 'GET'); share | edit answered  May 4 '12 at 6:20 Bao Le 656 1 10 20