How to post data in PHP using file_get_contents?

Sending an HTTP POST request using file_get_contents is not that hard, actually : as you guessed, you have to use the $context parameter.

There's an example given in the PHP manual, at this page : HTTP context options (quoting) :

$postdata = http_build_query(    array(        'var1' => 'some content',        'var2' => 'doh'    ));$opts = array('http' =>    array(        'method'  => 'POST',        'header'  => 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded',        'content' => $postdata    ));$context  = stream_context_create($opts);$result = file_get_contents('http://example.com/submit.php', false, $context);

Basically, you have to create a stream, with the right options (there is a full list on that page), and use it as the third parameter to file_get_contents -- nothing more ;-)

As a sidenote : generally speaking, to send HTTP POST requests, we tend to use curl, which provides a lot of options an all -- but streams are one of the nice things of PHP that nobody knows about... too bad...

An alternative, you can also use fopen

$params = array('http' => array(    'method' => 'POST',    'content' => 'toto=1&tata=2'));$ctx = stream_context_create($params);$fp = @fopen($sUrl, 'rb', false, $ctx);if (!$fp){    throw new Exception("Problem with $sUrl, $php_errormsg");}$response = @stream_get_contents($fp);if ($response === false) {    throw new Exception("Problem reading data from $sUrl, $php_errormsg");}

$sUrl = 'http://www.linktopage.com/login/';$params = array('http' => array(    'method'  => 'POST',    'content' => 'username=admin195&password=d123456789'));$ctx = stream_context_create($params);$fp = @fopen($sUrl, 'rb', false, $ctx);if(!$fp) {    throw new Exception("Problem with $sUrl, $php_errormsg");}$response = @stream_get_contents($fp);if($response === false) {    throw new Exception("Problem reading data from $sUrl, $php_errormsg");}