HTTP requests¶

php.request() runs PHP as a web server does: the code gets $_GET, $_POST, $_COOKIE, $_FILES and php://input, and what it sends with header(), setcookie() or http_response_code() makes the response. A framework runs as it is, from its front controller (see Symfony):

const response = await php.request({
    method: 'POST',
    url: 'https://example.com/blog/comments?page=2',
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded', Cookie: 'PHPSESSID=…' },
    body: 'comment=Hello',
}, { documentRoot: '/app/public' });

// { status: 302, headers: [['Location', '/blog'], ['Set-Cookie', '…'], …], body: Uint8Array, stderr: '' }

The request¶

The request is data, not a Request of fetch(): a browser drops the Cookie header of a Request, and the Set-Cookie headers of a Response. It is what postMessage() takes, too. headers is an object, a list of names and values, or Headers, and body a string or bytes (ArrayBuffer, Uint8Array…), for any method. Both are optional, as method (GET).

The URL asks for a file of documentRoot, as with a web server: a .php file runs, any other file is the response, as it is (a stylesheet, an image…), and a URL that is not a file runs index.php, the front controller. .. never goes out of documentRoot. basePath is where documentRoot is in the URLs, nowhere by default: with /app, /app/blog runs index.php with $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'] at /app/index.php, that Symfony builds its URLs from, and a URL out of /app is a 404.

$_SERVER has what a web server gives with CGI: REQUEST_METHOD, REQUEST_URI, QUERY_STRING, SCRIPT_NAME, SCRIPT_FILENAME, HTTP_HOST, an HTTP_* for each header… PHP_SAPI is wasm, not embed as with runFile(): Symfony takes embed for the command line (its errors in plain text, display_errors on, no flush…).

The response¶

Property	What it is
`status`	The HTTP status, 200 unless PHP says otherwise.
`headers`	The names and values that PHP sends, in a list: there may be several `Set-Cookie`.
`body`	What PHP wrote, as bytes (a `Uint8Array`).
`stderr`	What PHP wrote on stderr, the logs of Symfony for example.

request() is the web server, not the browser: it keeps no cookie, and follows no redirection. An application in a frame does both.