PHP REST Client

(c) 2013 Travis Dent tcdent@gmail.com

Basic Usage

$api = new RestClient(array(
    'base_url' => "https://api.twitter.com/1.1", 
    'format' => "json", 
     // https://dev.twitter.com/docs/auth/application-only-auth
    'headers' => array('Authorization' => 'Bearer '.OAUTH_BEARER), 
));
$result = $api->get("search/tweets", array('q' => "#php"));
// GET http://api.twitter.com/1.1/search/tweets.json?q=%23php
if($result->info->http_code == 200)
    var_dump($result->decode_response());

Configurable Options

headers - An associative array of HTTP headers and values to be included in every request.
parameters - An associative array of parameters to be merged with individual request parameters in every request.
curl_options - cURL options to apply to every request. These will override any automatically generated values.
user_agent - User agent string.
base_url - URL to use for the base of each request.
format - Format to append to resource and support decoding.
format_regex - Pattern to extract format from response Content-Type header.
decoders - Associative array of format decoders, see documentation below.
username - Username to use for basic authentication. Requires password.
password - Password to use for basic authentication. Requires username.

Options can be set upon instantiation, or individually afterword:

$api = new RestClient(array(
    'format' => "json", 
    'user_agent' => "my-application/0.1"
));

-or-

$api = new RestClient;
$api->set_option('format', "json");
$api->set_option('user_agent', "my-application/0.1");

Verbs

Four HTTP verbs are implemented as convenience methods: get(), post(), put() and delete(). Each accepts three arguments:

url - URL of the resource you are requesting. Will be prepended with the value of the base_url option, if it has been configured. Will be appended with the value of the format option, if it has been configured.
parameters - An associative array of query parameters, which will be formatted with the URL in GET requests, and passed in the request body on all others.
headers - An associative array of headers to include with the request.

You can make a request using any verb by calling execute() directly, which accepts four arguments: url, method, parameters and headers. All arguments expect the same values as in the convenience methods, with the exception of the additional method argument:

method - HTTP verb to perform the request with.

Not all endpoints support all HTTP verbs

These are examples of two common workarounds, but are entirely dependent on the endpoint you are accessing. Consult the service's documentation to see if this is required.

Passing an X-HTTP-Method-Override header:

$result = $api->post("put_resource", array(), array(
    'X-HTTP-Method-Override' => "PUT"
));

Passing a _method parameter:

$result = $api->post("put_resource", array(
    '_method' => "PUT"
));

Attributes populated after making a request

response - Plain text response body.
headers - Parsed response header object.
info - cURL response info object.
error - Response error string.

Direct Iteration and Response Decoding

If the the response data format is supported, the response will be decoded and accessible by iterating over the returned instance. When the format option is set, it will be used to select the decoder. If no format option is provided, an attempt is made to extract it from the response Content-Type header. This pattern is configurable with the format_regex option.

$api = new RestClient(array(
    'base_url' => "http://vimeo.com/api/v2", 
    'format' => "php"
));
$result = $api->get("tcdent/info");
foreach($result as $key => $value)
    var_dump($value);

Reading via ArrayAccess has been implemented, too:

var_dump($result['id']);

To access the decoded response as an array, call decode_response().

'json' and 'php' formats are configured to use the built-in json_decode and unserialize functions, respectively. Overrides and additional decoders can be specified upon instantiation, or individually afterword. Decoder functions take one argument: the raw request body. Functions created with create_function work, too.

function my_xml_decoder($data){
    new SimpleXMLElement($data);
}

$api = new RestClient(array(
    'format' => "xml", 
    'decoders' => array('xml' => "my_xml_decoder")
));

-or-

$api = new RestClient;
$api->set_option('format', "xml");
$api->register_decoder('xml', "my_xml_decoder");

Or, without polluting the global scope with a runtime function. This particular example allows you to receive decoded JSON data as an array.

$api->register_decoder('json', 
    create_function('$a', "return json_decode(\$a, TRUE);"));