HTTP CURL Request Service in CodeIgniter 4 Tutorial

Inside this article we will see the concept of using HTTP CURL service in CodeIgniter 4. In CodeIgniter 4 it’s a class means CURL request service is a CURLRequest Class.

The cURL stands for ‘Client for URLs‘, originally with URL spelled in uppercase to make it obvious that it deals with URLs. Since curl uses libcurl, it supports a range of common internal protocols, currently including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, GOPHER, TELNET, DICT, and FILE.

This article is bit very interesting to learn about HTTP CURL request service. We will cover the topic CURL request service in CodeIgniter 4.

Learn More –

• CodeIgniter 4 Models with Multiple Database Connection
• Codeigniter 4 Multi Auth User Role Wise Login
• CodeIgniter 4 Multiple Databases And Connection Groups
• CodeIgniter 4 Pagination Service or Library

Let’s get started.

CodeIgniter 4 Installation

To create a CodeIgniter 4 setup run this given command into your shell or terminal. Please make sure composer should be installed.

composer create-project codeigniter4/appstarter codeigniter-4

Assuming you have successfully installed application into your local system.

Environment (.env) Setup

When we install CodeIgniter 4, we will have env file at root. To use the environment variables means using variables at global scope we need to do env to .env

Either we can do via renaming file as simple as that. Also we can do by terminal command.

Open project in terminal

cp env .env

Above command will create a copy of env file to .env file. Now we are ready to use environment variables.

Enable Development Mode

CodeIgniter starts up in production mode by default. You need to make it in development mode to see any error if you are working with application.

Open .env file from root.

# CI_ENVIRONMENT = production

 // Do it to 
 
CI_ENVIRONMENT = development

Now application is in development mode.

What is CURLRequest Class?

The CURLRequest class in CodeIgniter 4 is a lightweight HTTP client based CURL that allows us to communicate to other websites and web servers. It can be used to get the contents of a webpage, retrieve image, or communicate with an API, many other things.

Load CURLRequest in Application

The library can be loaded either manually or through the Services class.

$curl = \Config\Services::curlrequest();

OR 

$curl = service('curlrequest');

Call API Using CURL Request

We will use a Fake api to fetch data from it.

API URL – https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts, Click here.

<?php

namespace App\Controllers;

class Home extends BaseController
{
	public function index()
	{
		$curl = service('curlrequest');
		// OR $curl = \Config\Services::curlrequest();

		$posts_data = $curl->request("get", "https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts", [
			"headers" => [
				"Accept" => "application/json"
			]
		]);

		echo "<pre>";
		print_r($posts_data);
	}
    
    //...
}

While calling API, it’s your choice to pass headers with it. It is an optional parameter inside CURL Request method.

When we run, something we will get into output screen.

More about CURL Request Service

CURLRequest Class is responsible for this CURL service in CodeIgniter 4.

Here is the path of CURLRequest Class,

/vendor/codeigniter4/framework/system/HTTP/CURLRequest.php

Inside this class file, you will get all about the available methods which we can use from this service.

$posts_data = $curl->request("get", "https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts", [
             "headers" => [
                 "Accept" => "application/json"
             ]
]);

In this code, we can see we have used request method of this class.

Now, go to class file and search for request method. You will get something –

public function request($method, string $url, array $options = []): ResponseInterface
{
  //...
}

Also, we have get() method into it.

<?php

namespace App\Controllers;

class Home extends BaseController
{
	public function index()
	{
		$curl = service('curlrequest');
		// OR $curl = \Config\Services::curlrequest();

		$posts_data = $client->get("https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts", [
			"headers" => [
				"Accept" => "application/json"
			]
		]);

		echo "<pre>";
		print_r($posts_data);
	}
    
    //...
}

Available Methods of CURLRequest Class

These are many methods provided by class which we can use inside application. Here we few methods are –

• request()
• get()
• delete()
• head()
• patch()
• post()

… many others also available.

CURLRequest Class – Output Methods

Output Methods –

• To get Reason – getReason()
• To get Status code – getStatusCode()
• Get Response Body – getBody()

These all methods are available inside CURLRequest Class.

<?php

namespace App\Controllers;

class Home extends BaseController
{
	public function index()
	{
		$client = \Config\Services::curlrequest();
		
		$posts_data = $client->get("https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts", [
			"headers" => [
				"Accept" => "application/json"
			]
		]);

		echo $posts_data->getReason();
		echo $posts_data->getStatusCode();
		print_r($posts_data->getBody());
	}
    
    //...
}

We hope this article helped you to learn HTTP CURL Request Service in CodeIgniter 4 Tutorial in a very detailed way.

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