How to send and save data via REST API?

To send and save data via REST API in PHP, you can use the following approach:

1. Sending data (client-side):

   • Use curl or libraries like Guzzle to send HTTP requests.
   • Send data in JSON format or as form-data.

2. Processing the request on the server (server-side):

   • Retrieve incoming data from php://input or through superglobal arrays ($_POST, $_GET).
   • Parse JSON if the data is in that format.
   • Validate and check the data.
   • Save the data to a database or a file.

Example of sending a POST request with JSON via curl in PHP:

$data = ['name' => 'Ivan', 'age' => 30];
$jsonData = json_encode($data);

$ch = curl_init('https://example.com/api/save');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, ['Content-Type: application/json']);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $jsonData);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

echo $response;

Example of processing the request on the server:

// Get JSON from request body
$input = file_get_contents('php://input');
$data = json_decode($input, true);

if ($data && isset($data['name'])) {
    // Logic to save data, e.g., to a database
    // ...
    echo json_encode(['status' => 'success']);
} else {
    http_response_code(400);
    echo json_encode(['status' => 'error', 'message' => 'Invalid data']);
}