Question

I am working on creating API keys with php. I got a bit of it but I want to store a function in a variable. But instead it echos all the time. I want that the function should be stored in a variable and when the variable is echoed its function should be echoed. My codes are:

Client:

function get_cat($id){
    // Initialising authorisation to access api keys        
    $ch = curl_init("http://localhost/api/category.php?id=".$id);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIE, "log=".$_SESSION['log']);
    // Executing script to set login session
    curl_exec($ch);
    // Closing curl connection session
    curl_close($ch);
}

Server:

    // Fetching data from database
    $query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM cat WHERE id={$id}", $con) or die("Sorry Cannot Connect: ".mysql_error());
    echo json_encode(mysql_fetch_assoc($query));

Client:

$api = new API('test', 'test');
$res = $api->get_cat(2);

Now even if I assign the function in the $res variable it echos. Is there anyway to stop it? Because I want the users to store the function in a variable and use that variable to display those contents inside it anywhere they want.

Answer 1

By default curl will add the contents to stdout eg the page buffer unlees you request it to return from the curl_exec.

Try this:

function get_cat($id){
    // Initialising authorisation to access api keys        
    $ch = curl_init("http://localhost/api/category.php?id=".$id);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIE, "log=".$_SESSION['log']);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0); //2 Not inc the http headers
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true); 
    // Executing script to set login session
    $html = curl_exec($ch);
    // Closing curl connection session
    curl_close($ch);
    return $html;
}