Question

I am trying to update some custom fields using the REST API and PHP/cURL.

I’m wondering if I might have edited something without realizing it, while what I have below “worked” yesterday (I think), it does not work now.

I get varying responses using the different “methods”, from:

1. I get this one using the POST method, as it is uncommented below.

   HTTP 405 – The specified HTTP method is not allowed for the requested
   resource ().

2. I get this one if I use the commented-out PUT method, with POST commented out.

   {"status-code":500,"message":"Read timed out"}
   

3. And this one mixing and matching PUT and POST.

   {"errorMessages":["No content to map to Object due to end of input"]}
   

What am I missing/doing wrong? I am using the following code:

<?php

$username = 'username';
$password = 'password';

$url = "https://example.com/rest/api/2/issue/PROJ-827";
$ch = curl_init();

$headers = array(
    'Accept: application/json',
    'Content-Type: application/json'
);

$test = "This is the content of the custom field.";

$data = <<<JSON
{
    "fields": {
        "customfield_11334" : ["$test"]
    }
}
JSON;

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
// Also tried, with the above two lines commented out...
// curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_PUT, 1);
// curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_INFILE, $data);
// curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_INFILESIZE, strlen($data));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "$username:$password");

$result = curl_exec($ch);
$ch_error = curl_error($ch);

if ($ch_error) {
    echo "cURL Error: $ch_error";
} else {
    echo $result;
}

curl_close($ch);

?> 

Answer 1

The problem here is that PHP’s cURL API is not particularly intuitive.

You might think that because a POST request body is sent using the following option
that a PUT request would be done the same way:

// works for sending a POST request
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);

// DOES NOT work to send a PUT request
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_PUT, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_PUTFIELDS, $data);

Instead, to send a PUT request (with associated body data), you need the following:

// The correct way to send a PUT request
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "PUT");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);

Note that even though you’re sending a PUT request, you still have to use the CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS
option to send your PUT request body. It’s a confusing and inconsistent process, but it’s what you’ve
got if you want to use the PHP cURL bindings.

According to the relevant manual entry^docs, the CURLOPT_PUT option seems to only work for PUTting a file directly:

TRUE to HTTP PUT a file. The file to PUT must be set with CURLOPT_INFILE and CURLOPT_INFILESIZE.

A better option IMHO is to use a custom stream wrapper for HTTP client operations. This carries the
added benefit of not making your application reliant on the underlying libcurl library. Such an
implementation is beyond the scope of this question, though. Google is your friend if you’re interested
in developing a stream wrapper solution.