How to post data using file_get_contents in PHP ?

Last Updated : 11 Jun, 2020

The file_get_contents() function in PHP is used to read the contents of a file and make HTTP requests using GET and get HTTP responses using POST methods. The HTTP POST request can be made using the $context parameter of the file_get_contents() function, which posts the specified data to the URL specified using the $path parameter. The following syntax is used to POST requests to the required path:

Syntax:

string file_get_contents( $path, $include_path, 
                      $context, $offset, $max_length )

Parameters:

$path: A required parameter that specifies the URL to post data.
$include_path: It is an optional parameter that specifies if we wish to search for files in the included path while reading.
$context: It specifies the data in the form of a JSON stream to be posted to the URL.
$start: It is an optional parameter that is used to specify the starting point in the file for reading.
$max_length: It is an optional parameter that is used to specify the number of bytes to be read.

Therefore, a content stream can be created and then, injected into the respective path. The data can contain information in the form of key-value pairs. The context stream is created by the stream_context_create($options) function with the parameters supplied in the $options argument. The parameters contain the ‘method’ consisting of either GET or POST and ‘content’ parameter containing the data that has to appear on the URL.

The code snippet indicates a sample program to post data to the URL using the file_get_contents() method. We create a folder by the name Demo which contains two files “index.php” and “demo1.php” and run it using the MAMP server.

The following code is included in ‘index.php’.

<?php 
  
// Contains the url to post data 
// this is my local server url 
// demo is the folder name and 
// demo1.php is other file 
$url_path = 'http://localhost:8888/Demo/demo1.php'; 
  
// Data is an array of key value pairs 
// to be reflected on the site 
$data = array('Name' => 'John', 'Age' => '24'); 
  
// Method specified whether to GET or 
// POST data with the content specified 
// by $data variable. 'http' is used 
// even in case of 'https' 
  
$options = array( 
    'http' => array( 
    'method' => 'POST', 
    'content' => http_build_query($data)) 
); 
  
// Create a context stream with 
// the specified options 
$stream = stream_context_create($options); 
  
// The data is stored in the  
// result variable 
$result = file_get_contents( 
        $url_path, false, $stream); 
  
echo $result; 
?> 