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http_build_query() without url encoding – Ebay API

Is there a way to use http_build_query() without having it URL encode according to some RFC standard?

Why I don’t want to URL encode everything: I’m querying the Ebay API.. They honestly insist on parameter names not being URL encoded, as far as commas in parentheses. E.g. DomainName(0) is a parameter, and the query fails if those parens are encoded.

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10

Answers


  1. 0

    Nope, it appears to always want to encode (which it should, it is meant to URL encode when building a list of params for a URL).

    You could make your own…

    $params = array('a' => 'A', 'b' => 'B');

$paramsJoined = array();

foreach($params as $param => $value) {
   $paramsJoined[] = "$param=$value";
}

$query = implode('&', $paramsJoined);

    CodePad.

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  2. 0

    You might want to try their JSON API instead. I tried to get a working sample, but I don’t have an app name so I can’t verify the result. Here’s the code:

    <?php
$appName = "Your App Name Here";

$post_data = array(
  'jsonns.xsi' => 'http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance',
  'jsonns.xs' => 'http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema',
  'jsonns.tns' => 'http://www.ebay.com/marketplace/search/v1/services',
  'tns.findItemsByKeywordsRequest' => array(
    'keywords' => 'harry potter pheonix'
  )
);

$headers = array(
  "X-EBAY-SOA-REQUEST-DATA-FORMAT: JSON", 
  "X-EBAY-SOA-RESPONSE-DATA-FORMAT: JSON",
  "X-EBAY-SOA-OPERATION-NAME: findItemsByKeywords",
  "X-EBAY-SOA-SECURITY-APPNAME: $appName"
);

$ch = curl_init();

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'http://svcs.ebay.com/services/search/FindingService/v1');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($post_data));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);

$result = curl_exec($ch);
if($result) {
  $response = json_decode($result);
}

curl_close($ch);
?>

    You’ll need to to fill $appName with whatever the name of the app is. Also the X-EBAY-SOA-OPERATION-NAME will need to be set to the actual call, and the JSON modified if the call is different.

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  3. 0

    my take on alex’s answer but is faster

    $params = array('a' => 'A', 'b' => 'B');
$query = '';

foreach ($params as $param => $value) {
   $query .= $param.'='.$value .'&';
}

echo substr($query, 0, -1);
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  4. 0

    You can use urldecode() function on a result string which you get from http_build_query()

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  5. 0

    http_build_query() is INVALID without urlencoding. Maybe you accidentally double-encode it?
    For example, try to build http query for this array:

    $params = array('a' => 'a&b=b');

    Without encoding, you would get

    a=a&b=b

    When properly encoded, you would get

    a=a%26b%3Db

    which is correct. If you skip encoding, be sure to avoid URL injection attacks.

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  6. 0

    This could also work

    $fields = array(
    'a' => 'A', 
    'b' => 'B'
 );

$separator = '';
foreach($fields as $key=>$value) {
    $fields_string .= $separator . $key . '=' . $value; 
    $separator = '&'; 
}
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  7. 0

    You can use urldecode().
    Or use http_build_query with the $arg_separator argument.

        $query_data= $data = array('bar', 'baz'=>'boom');
    $numeric_prefix= 'test_';
    $arg_separator = '&';
    $http_query = http_build_query ( $query_data, $numeric_prefix, $arg_separator );
    var_dump( $http_query );

    the output of the above is

         string 'test_0=bar&baz=boom' (length=19)

    numeric_prefix: if the array indexes are numbers, this string is added as prefix in each index. In this case the ‘test_0=bar’.

    arg_separator : is used to separate arguments. If non is given php use the arg_separator.output difined in php.ini

    See php http_build_query

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  8. 0

    PHP 5.3.1 (Buggy Behavior)
    http_build_query DOES escape the ‘&’ ampersand character that joins the parameters. Example: user_id=1&amp;setting_id=2.

    PHP 5.4+
    http_build_query DOES NOT escape the ‘&’ ampersand character that joins the parameters. Example: user_id=1&setting_id=2

    Example:

    $params = array(
    'user_id' => '1', 
    'setting_id' => '2'
);
echo http_build_query($params);

// Output for PHP 5.3.1:
user_id=1&amp;setting_id=2   // NOTICE THAT: '&' character is escaped

// Output for PHP 5.4.0+:
user_id=1&setting_id=2       // NOTICE THAT: '&' character is NOT escaped

    Solution when targeting multiple version

    Option #1: Write a wrapper function:

    /** 
 * This will work consistently and will never escape the '&' character
 */
function buildQuery($params) {
    return http_build_query($params, '', '&');
}

    Option #2: Ditch the http_build_query function and write your own.

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  9. 0

    I tried do this recently https://gist.github.com/marcocesarato/4293986fe93139f04d8269aa3fbd47e9 the difference is that this function is array recursive and compatible with PHP4. You can manage here the urlencode

    <?php
/**
 * Build URL query params
 * as http_build_query build a query url the difference is 
 * that this function is array recursive and compatible with PHP4
 *
 * @author Marco Cesarato <[email protected]>
 * @param $query
 * @param string $parent
 * @return string
 *
 * @example
 * $p = array('abbreviations' => array('google' => 'ggle', 'facebook' => array('abb_key' => 'fbook', 'fcbk')), 'key' => 'value');
 * echo url_build_query($p);
 */
function url_build_query($query, $parent = null){
    $query_array = array();
    foreach($query as $key => $value){
        $_key = empty($parent) ?  urlencode($key) : $parent . '[' . urlencode($key) . ']';
        if(is_array($value)) {
            $query_array[] = url_build_query($value, $_key);
        } else {
            $query_array[] = $_key . '=' . urlencode($value);
        }
    }
    return implode('&', $query_array);
}
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  10. 0

    I was trying to create a GET string to attach it to the end of a url like this –

    $get_params = array(
    'include' => array(
        'enrollments',
        'current_grading_period_scores'
    ),
    'enrollment_type' => array(
        'student',
    ),

);
$get_params = http_build_query($get_params);
$get_params = urldecode($get_params);
$url = $domain.$slug;
$url = $url.'?'.$get_params;
echo $url;

    which prints out

    include[0]=enrollments&include[1]=current_grading_period_scores&enrollment_type[0]=student

    But my api didn’t like the numbers in the square brackets, so I found a regular expression that removes the numbers – 

    preg_replace('/[[0-9]+]/', '[]', $get_params);

    The final code, and the result – 

    $get_params = array(
    'include' => array(
        'enrollments',
        'current_grading_period_scores'
    ),
    'enrollment_type' => array(
        'student',
    ),

);
$get_params = http_build_query($get_params);
$get_params = urldecode($get_params);
$get_params = preg_replace('/[[0-9]+]/', '[]', $get_params);
$url = $domain.$slug;
$url = $url.'?'.$get_params;
echo $url;

    Prints out –

    include[]=enrollments&include[]=current_grading_period_scores&enrollment_type[]=student

    If someone knows of a better regex let me know, I’m kind of a noob with it.

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