Question

GREAT comment thread at: https://stackoverflow.com/a/6398220/1679026 gave me hope but I failed to solve my issue. When I use cURL to fetch the http://www.php.net page, it works so cURL works

I have a network-appliance that lives on a local LAN (http://192.168.1.117) here, or at my client site the devices (n) are on their LAN (173.18.13.xxx). From a Local_Browser_Address I can type “http://192.168.1.117/#diag/term&cmd=signage+sign+ALARM” and the network-appliance responds with a change to the “ALARM” state. <– That is what I want to automate with one button!

On my web form I have $_POST PHP code to execute when the Alarm_Button is clicked. I want the user on my clients physical site to be able to click the_button on my web_form (www.mySite.com/index.php?option=com_rsform&formId=27) in -their browser- and have cURL code send/Post/execute that (http-ALARM) address/instruction string. Can I do this thing? No UI Required at or after address/instruction is sent.

I tried:

     $c = curl_init('http://192.168.1.117/u/r/l');
     curl_setopt($c, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('#diag/term&cmd=signage+sign+ALARM'));
     curl_exec($c);

AND

     $curl = curl_init();
     echo"<br>  the curl resource is ch --> $curl";
     curl_setopt ($curl, CURLOPT_URL, "http://192.168.1.117");
     curl_setopt ($curl, CURLOPT_POST, "/#diag/term&cmd=signage+sign+CELL_IN_ALARM");
     curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
     $result = curl_exec ($curl);
     curl_close ($curl);
     echo"<br>  The RESULT (1) is --> $result";

No error message but no useful result.

First: I am afraid I am being stopped by the security restrictions like “no_outside_web_page_doing_junk_locally” kind of rules.

IF I have to create a local page on an internal web server, I can do this on another device on the same/adjacent network. But the problem remains for me, how to express the ip/command instruction in the cURL tools.

I have scoured the StackOverFlow information and it seems like I am close but missing the “glaring truth” somewhere!

Hope my challenge is worthy of your interest.
Thank you.
—UPDATE—

the “Sent” values (461) above and below the one (484) highlighted have respective POST Data of:
{“version”:”1.1″,”method”:”unit.baseInfo”,”id”:28,”params”:[]}
{“version”:”1.1″,”method”:”term.cmd”,”id”:29,”params”:[“signage sign CELL_IN_ALARM”]}
{“version”:”1.1″,”method”:”unit.baseInfo”,”id”:30,”params”:[]}

This shows Types application/jason and URLs of –http://192.168.1.117/jasonrpc-(jasonRemoteProcedureCall?)

Does this simplify or complicate my struggle?

— New Update —

When I run the following code I get the php.net home page and a blank return “…is –>” for the second return…

// From http://www.tuxradar.com/practicalphp/15/10/2
  $curl1 = curl_init();
    curl_setopt ($curl1, CURLOPT_URL, "http://www.php.net");
    curl_setopt($curl1, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    $result = curl_exec ($curl1);
    curl_close ($curl1);
    print $result;
//====================
  $curl = curl_init();
    curl_setopt ($curl, CURLOPT_URL, "http://192.168.1.117");
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    $result = curl_exec ($curl);
    curl_close ($curl);
    //print $result;
  echo"<br>  The RESULT (1) is --> $result";

The first one is a www and the second one is the device on my network. Is this a primitive Network/Web conflict? Really appreciate the brain cycles here!

Answer 1

You are thinking of CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS.

This can be used like

$ch = curl_init($site);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "field1=value1&field2=value2&field3=value3");
$chx = curl_exec($ch);

It should also be noted that CURLOPT_POST only takes TRUE or FALSE per the documentation found here