W3docs

Post Requests with cURL

cURL is applied for making requests with different protocols. A post request can send user collected data to a server. Find out how to do that accurately.

A bunch of tools are necessary for a programmer to work efficiently. The <kbd class="highlighted">cURL</kbd> tool is one of those crucial tools. This snippet shows you how to make POST requests with <kbd class="highlighted">cURL</kbd> accurately.

Making a Post Request with cURL

Many APIs support both POST and PUT requests that are similar to each other. Using <kbd class="highlighted">cURL</kbd> at the command line makes it much easier to apply the form-urlencoded format rather than JSON.

Here is a clear example of using <kbd class="highlighted">cURL</kbd> for a POST request:

post request with curl

<?php

// Define variables
$url = 'https://example.com/api';
$fields = ['name' => 'John', 'email' => '[email protected]'];
$fields_string = http_build_query($fields);

//open connection
$ch = curl_init();

//set the url
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);

//set POST request
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);

//set POST data
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $fields_string);

//return the transfer as a string
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

//execute post
$result = curl_exec($ch);

//close connection
curl_close($ch);

?>

What is cURL

The <kbd class="highlighted">cURL</kbd> tool is generally applied for the transfer of data with Internet protocols for a particular URL.

Curl is considered a client-side program. Its name stands for client and URL. <kbd class="highlighted">cURL</kbd> encompasses a curl command line along with a libcurl library.

In the framework of this snippet, we emphasize the curl command line. Curl is capable of working with multiple internet protocols such as FTP, HTTP, TELNET, and more.