cURL POST command line on WINDOWS RESTful service

My problem: Using the command line tool to curl my localhost server while sending some data along with my POST request is not working.

What seems to be causing the error: Imagine something like this

1. curl -i -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"data1": "data goes here", "data2": "data2 goes here"}' http:localhost/path/to/api

Result of the returning data

curl: (6) Could not resolve host: application; No data record of requested type
curl: (6) Could not resolve host: data goes here,; No data record of requested type
curl: (6) Could not resolve host: data2; No data record of requested type
curl: (3) [globbing] unmatched close brace/bracket at pos 16

After some searching i figured out that problem couldn't be the sintax used for the request since it works on UNIX shells.

Are you possibly using Windows? That so looks like a completely broken shell that doesn't properly deal with single-quotes vs double-quotes. I just tried that command line and it worked fine on my linux box. http://curl.haxx.se/mail/archive-2011-03/0066.html

I tried to work around with those " escaping it \" but it still didn't work

2.

curl -i -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{\"data1\": \"data goes here\", \"data2\": \"data2 goes here\"}' http: //localhost/path/to/api

3.

curl -i -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{\"data1\": \"data goes here\", \"data2\": \"data2 goes here\"}' http: //localhost/path/to/api

So i gave up. Windows seems to messing up with the JSON object sent on POST

Solution 1:

I ran into the same issue on my win7 x64 laptop and was able to get it working using the curl release that is labeled Win64 - Generic w SSL by using the very similar command line format:

C:\Projects\curl-7.23.1-win64-ssl-sspi>curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST http://localhost/someapi -d "{\"Name\":\"Test Value\"}"

Which only differs from your 2nd escape version by using double-quotes around the escaped ones and the header parameter value. Definitely prefer the linux shell syntax more.

Solution 2:

Another Alternative for the command line that is easier than fighting with quotation marks is to put the json into a file, and use the @ prefix of curl parameters, e.g. with the following in json.txt:

{ "syncheader" : {
    "servertimesync" : "20131126121749",
    "deviceid" : "testDevice"
  }
}

then in my case I issue:

curl localhost:9000/sync -H "Content-type:application/json" -X POST -d @json.txt

Keeps the json more readable too.

Solution 3:

Alternative solution: A More Userfriendly solution than command line:

If you are looking for a user friendly way to send and request data using HTTP Methods other than simple GET's probably you are looking for a chrome extention just like this one http://goo.gl/rVW22f called AVANCED REST CLIENT

For guys looking to stay with command-line i recommend cygwin:

I ended up installing cygwin with CURL which allow us to Get that Linux feeling - on Windows!

Using Cygwin command line this issues have stopped and most important, the request syntax used on 1. worked fine.

Useful links:

Where i was downloading the curl for windows command line?

For more information on how to install and get curl working with cygwin just go here

I hope it helps someone because i spent all morning on this.

Solution 4:

At least for the Windows binary version I tested, (the Generic Win64 no-SSL binary, currently based on 7.33.0), you are subject to limitations in how the command line arguments are being parsed. The answer by xmas describes the correct syntax in that setting, which also works in a batch file. Using the example provided:

curl -i -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d "{""data1"":""data goes here"",""data2"":""data2 goes here""}" http:localhost/path/to/api

A cleaner alternative to avoid having to deal with escaped characters, which is dependent upon whatever library is used to parse the command line, is to have your standard json format text in a separate file:

curl -i -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d "@body.json" http:localhost/path/to/api

Solution 5:

1. Try to use double quotes (") instead of single ones (').
2. To preserve JSON format quotes, try doubling them ("").

3. To preserve quotes inside data, try to double-escape them like this (\\"").

   curl ... -d "{""data1"": ""data1 goes here"", ""data2"": ""data2 goes here""}"
   curl ... -d "{""data"": ""data \\""abc\\"" goes here""}"