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Send Web Request

How to Make an HTTP Request with PHP

PHP can make HTTP requests with cURL or the Guzzle library. cURL is built-in; Guzzle is popular for more complex needs.

GET request example

Making a GET request to fetch data with custom headers:

$ch = curl_init('https://api.example.com/users');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        'Accept: application/json',
        'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN'
    ]
]);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
$data = json_decode($response);
curl_close($ch);

POST request example

Making a POST request to send JSON data:

$ch = curl_init('https://api.example.com/users');
$data = json_encode(['name' => 'John', 'email' => 'john@example.com']);
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $data,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => ['Content-Type: application/json']
]);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

PUT request example

Replacing a resource with PUT:

$ch = curl_init('https://api.example.com/users/123');
$data = json_encode(['name' => 'John Updated', 'email' => 'john.new@example.com']);
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'PUT',
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $data,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => ['Content-Type: application/json']
]);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

PATCH request example

Partially updating a resource with PATCH:

$ch = curl_init('https://api.example.com/users/123');
$data = json_encode(['email' => 'john.updated@example.com']);
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'PATCH',
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $data,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => ['Content-Type: application/json']
]);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

DELETE request example

Deleting a resource:

$ch = curl_init('https://api.example.com/users/123');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'DELETE',
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => ['Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN']
]);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

Error handling

Check curl_errno($ch) and curl_error($ch) for transport errors, then read the HTTP status with curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE) before trusting the body. Guzzle throws RequestException on 4xx/5xx by default, which you can catch instead.

$ch = curl_init('https://api.example.com/users');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response = curl_exec($ch);

if ($response === false) {
    echo 'Request failed: ' . curl_error($ch);
} else {
    $code = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
    if ($code >= 200 && $code < 300) {
        $data = json_decode($response, true);
    } else {
        echo "HTTP $code error";
    }
}
curl_close($ch);

Try it in Send Web Request

PHP's cURL mirrors the command-line curl. Use Send Web Request to test the request in your browser first, then translate it to PHP.

Open Send Web Request

Other libraries you can try