Sending JSON via POST in PHP and CURL usage

Sometimes, you’ll come across web services and APIs that will require you to send JSON via a POST request. The php code that you need:

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<?php //API Url $url = 'http://example.com/api/JSON/create'; //Initiate cURL. $ch = curl_init($url); //The JSON data. $jsonData = array( 'username' => 'MyUsername', 'password' => 'MyPassword' ); //Encode the array into JSON. $jsonDataEncoded = json_encode($jsonData); //Tell cURL that we want to send a POST request. curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1); //Attach our encoded JSON string to the POST fields. curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $jsonDataEncoded); //Set the content type to application/json curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-Type: application/json')); //Execute the request $result = curl_exec($ch);

Step by step explanation of the above code:

stolen from:  http://thisinterestsme.com/sending-json-via-post-php/

More Useful CURL tidbits of info.
https://gist.github.com/subfuzion/08c5d85437d5d4f00e58

curl usage to send POST 

For sending data with POST and PUT requests, these are common curl options:

• request type
  • -X POST
  • -X PUT
• content type header
• -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
• -H "Content-Type: application/json"
• data
  • form urlencoded: -d "param1=value1&param2=value2" or -d @data.txt
  • json: -d '{"key1":"value1", "key2":"value2"}' or -d @data.json
  •