Laravel 4 make post request from controller to external url with data

Question

I am looking for a way to make a post request from a controller to an external url. The data being posted is a php array. The url to recieve is an ecommerce API in an external url. The post has to be done from the controller method. The url should reply with 'success', 'error', 'failure' or 'trylater' string. I have tried the following with no success:

    return Redirect::to("https://backoffice.host.iveri.com/Lite/Transactions/New/Authorise.aspx", compact($array));

I have tried curl too:

    $url = 'https://backoffice.host.iveri.com/Lite/Transactions/New/Authorise.aspx';
    //url-ify the data for the POST
    $fields_string ='';
    foreach($array as $key=>$value) { $fields_string .= $key.'='.$value.'&'; }
    rtrim($fields_string,'& ');

    //open connection
    $ch = curl_init();

    //set the url, number of POST vars, POST data
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL, $url);
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST, count($array));
    curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $fields_string);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);

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

    //close connection
    curl_close($ch);

Part of the array being sent is the callbacks that the API uses to responds:

'Lite_Website_Successful_url' => 'https://mydomain.com/order/'.$order_id,
'Lite_Website_Fail_url' => 'https://mydomain.com/checkout/fail',
'Lite_Website_TryLater_url' => 'https://mydomain.com/checkout/trylater',
'Lite_Website_Error_url' => 'https://mydomain.com/checkout/error'

Please let me know how to do a POST request properly with data carried with it to an external url. An ajax post from the controller too would help but I have tried with no success. But I would prefer a laravel php answer more. Thank you.

Answer 1

Let me clarify some stuff and try to point you in the right direction.

First, what you're attempting to do sounds like "making an API request from your web app". The difference in that wording in how I stated it vs yours is that it's more general.

1. You can make an API request anywhere in your application, not necessarily in your controller (Don't be afraid to make extra classes/models for things like API calls!)
2. I'm curious about why it "has to be" done in your controller? What's your use case?
3. AJAX doesn't exist on the server-side (in PHP). That's purely a javascript-specific "technology" that describes javascript making a request to a URL on the client-side.

Lastly, what are you trying to do? Do you need a user to be redirected? Or do you need to make an API call and parse the result within your application?

The cURL request you've attempted should work for making an API request. That's one of the main ways of making an API request within PHP code. It won't, however, allow a user on the front-end to see that request being made and processed. With cURL (and any API request), the processing is all happening behind the scenes in your PHP (which your users can't see).