Quickstart

This page provides a quick introduction to Guzzle and introductory examples. If you have not already installed, Guzzle, head over to the Installation page.

Making a Request

You can send requests with Guzzle using a GuzzleHttp\ClientInterface object.

Creating a Client

use GuzzleHttp\Client;

$client = new Client([
    // Base URI is used with relative requests
    'base_uri' => 'http://httpbin.org',
    // You can set any number of default request options.
    'timeout'  => 2.0,
]);

Clients are immutable in Guzzle, which means that you cannot change the defaults used by a client after it's created.

The client constructor accepts an associative array of options:

base_uri

(string|UriInterface) Base URI of the client that is merged into relative URIs. Can be a string or instance of UriInterface. When a relative URI is provided to a client, the client will combine the base URI with the relative URI using the rules described in RFC 3986, section 5.2.

// Create a client with a base URI
$client = new GuzzleHttp\Client(['base_uri' => 'https://foo.com/api/']);
// Send a request to https://foo.com/api/test
$response = $client->request('GET', 'test');
// Send a request to https://foo.com/root
$response = $client->request('GET', '/root');

Don't feel like reading RFC 3986? Here are some quick examples on how a base_uri is resolved with another URI.

base_uri URI Result
http://foo.com /bar http://foo.com/bar
http://foo.com/foo /bar http://foo.com/bar
http://foo.com/foo bar http://foo.com/bar
http://foo.com/foo/ bar http://foo.com/foo/bar
http://foo.com http://baz.com http://baz.com
http://foo.com/?bar bar http://foo.com/bar
handler
(callable) Function that transfers HTTP requests over the wire. The function is called with a Psr7\Http\Message\RequestInterface and array of transfer options, and must return a GuzzleHttp\Promise\PromiseInterface that is fulfilled with a Psr7\Http\Message\ResponseInterface on success.
...
(mixed) All other options passed to the constructor are used as default request options with every request created by the client.

Sending Requests

Magic methods on the client make it easy to send synchronous requests:

$response = $client->get('http://httpbin.org/get');
$response = $client->delete('http://httpbin.org/delete');
$response = $client->head('http://httpbin.org/get');
$response = $client->options('http://httpbin.org/get');
$response = $client->patch('http://httpbin.org/patch');
$response = $client->post('http://httpbin.org/post');
$response = $client->put('http://httpbin.org/put');

You can create a request and then send the request with the client when you're ready:

use GuzzleHttp\Psr7\Request;

$request = new Request('PUT', 'http://httpbin.org/put');
$response = $client->send($request, ['timeout' => 2]);

Client objects provide a great deal of flexibility in how request are transferred including default request options, default handler stack middleware that are used by each request, and a base URI that allows you to send requests with relative URIs.

You can find out more about client middleware in the Handlers and Middleware page of the documentation.

Async Requests

You can send asynchronous requests using the magic methods provided by a client:

$promise = $client->getAsync('http://httpbin.org/get');
$promise = $client->deleteAsync('http://httpbin.org/delete');
$promise = $client->headAsync('http://httpbin.org/get');
$promise = $client->optionsAsync('http://httpbin.org/get');
$promise = $client->patchAsync('http://httpbin.org/patch');
$promise = $client->postAsync('http://httpbin.org/post');
$promise = $client->putAsync('http://httpbin.org/put');

You can also use the sendAsync() and requestAsync() methods of a client:

use GuzzleHttp\Psr7\Request;

// Create a PSR-7 request object to send
$headers = ['X-Foo' => 'Bar'];
$body = 'Hello!';
$request = new Request('HEAD', 'http://httpbin.org/head', $headers, $body);
$promise = $client->sendAsync($request);

// Or, if you don't need to pass in a request instance:
$promise = $client->requestAsync('GET', 'http://httpbin.org/get');

The promise returned by these methods implements the Promises/A+ spec, provided by the Guzzle promises library. This means that you can chain then() calls off of the promise. These then calls are either fulfilled with a successful Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface or rejected with an exception.

use Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface;
use GuzzleHttp\Exception\RequestException;

$promise = $client->requestAsync('GET', 'http://httpbin.org/get');
$promise->then(
    function (ResponseInterface $res) {
        echo $res->getStatusCode() . "\n";
    },
    function (RequestException $e) {
        echo $e->getMessage() . "\n";
        echo $e->getRequest()->getMethod();
    }
);

Concurrent requests

You can send multiple requests concurrently using promises and asynchronous requests.

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\Promise;

$client = new Client(['base_uri' => 'http://httpbin.org/']);

// Initiate each request but do not block
$promises = [
    'image' => $client->getAsync('/image'),
    'png'   => $client->getAsync('/image/png'),
    'jpeg'  => $client->getAsync('/image/jpeg'),
    'webp'  => $client->getAsync('/image/webp')
];

// Wait for the requests to complete; throws a ConnectException
// if any of the requests fail
$responses = Promise\Utils::unwrap($promises);

// You can access each response using the key of the promise
echo $responses['image']->getHeader('Content-Length')[0];
echo $responses['png']->getHeader('Content-Length')[0];

// Wait for the requests to complete, even if some of them fail
$responses = Promise\Utils::settle($promises)->wait();

// Values returned above are wrapped in an array with 2 keys: "state" (either fulfilled or rejected) and "value" (contains the response)
echo $responses['image']['state']; // returns "fulfilled"
echo $responses['image']['value']->getHeader('Content-Length')[0];
echo $responses['png']['value']->getHeader('Content-Length')[0];

You can use the GuzzleHttp\Pool object when you have an indeterminate amount of requests you wish to send.

use GuzzleHttp\Client;
use GuzzleHttp\Exception\RequestException;
use GuzzleHttp\Pool;
use GuzzleHttp\Psr7\Request;
use GuzzleHttp\Psr7\Response;

$client = new Client();

$requests = function ($total) {
    $uri = 'http://127.0.0.1:8126/guzzle-server/perf';
    for ($i = 0; $i < $total; $i++) {
        yield new Request('GET', $uri);
    }
};

$pool = new Pool($client, $requests(100), [
    'concurrency' => 5,
    'fulfilled' => function (Response $response, $index) {
        // this is delivered each successful response
    },
    'rejected' => function (RequestException $reason, $index) {
        // this is delivered each failed request
    },
]);

// Initiate the transfers and create a promise
$promise = $pool->promise();

// Force the pool of requests to complete.
$promise->wait();

Or using a closure that will return a promise once the pool calls the closure.

$client = new Client();

$requests = function ($total) use ($client) {
    $uri = 'http://127.0.0.1:8126/guzzle-server/perf';
    for ($i = 0; $i < $total; $i++) {
        yield function() use ($client, $uri) {
            return $client->getAsync($uri);
        };
    }
};

$pool = new Pool($client, $requests(100));

Using Responses

In the previous examples, we retrieved a $response variable or we were delivered a response from a promise. The response object implements a PSR-7 response, Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface, and contains lots of helpful information.

You can get the status code and reason phrase of the response:

$code = $response->getStatusCode(); // 200
$reason = $response->getReasonPhrase(); // OK

You can retrieve headers from the response:

// Check if a header exists.
if ($response->hasHeader('Content-Length')) {
    echo "It exists";
}

// Get a header from the response.
echo $response->getHeader('Content-Length')[0];

// Get all of the response headers.
foreach ($response->getHeaders() as $name => $values) {
    echo $name . ': ' . implode(', ', $values) . "\r\n";
}

The body of a response can be retrieved using the getBody method. The body can be used as a string, cast to a string, or used as a stream like object.

$body = $response->getBody();
// Implicitly cast the body to a string and echo it
echo $body;
// Explicitly cast the body to a string
$stringBody = (string) $body;
// Read 10 bytes from the body
$tenBytes = $body->read(10);
// Read the remaining contents of the body as a string
$remainingBytes = $body->getContents();

Query String Parameters

You can provide query string parameters with a request in several ways.

You can set query string parameters in the request's URI:

$response = $client->request('GET', 'http://httpbin.org?foo=bar');

You can specify the query string parameters using the query request option as an array.

$client->request('GET', 'http://httpbin.org', [
    'query' => ['foo' => 'bar']
]);

Providing the option as an array will use PHP's http_build_query function to format the query string.

And finally, you can provide the query request option as a string.

$client->request('GET', 'http://httpbin.org', ['query' => 'foo=bar']);

Uploading Data

Guzzle provides several methods for uploading data.

You can send requests that contain a stream of data by passing a string, resource returned from fopen, or an instance of a Psr\Http\Message\StreamInterface to the body request option.

use GuzzleHttp\Psr7;

// Provide the body as a string.
$r = $client->request('POST', 'http://httpbin.org/post', [
    'body' => 'raw data'
]);

// Provide an fopen resource.
$body = Psr7\Utils::tryFopen('/path/to/file', 'r');
$r = $client->request('POST', 'http://httpbin.org/post', ['body' => $body]);

// Use the Utils::streamFor method to create a PSR-7 stream.
$body = Psr7\Utils::streamFor('hello!');
$r = $client->request('POST', 'http://httpbin.org/post', ['body' => $body]);

An easy way to upload JSON data and set the appropriate header is using the json request option:

$r = $client->request('PUT', 'http://httpbin.org/put', [
    'json' => ['foo' => 'bar']
]);

POST/Form Requests

In addition to specifying the raw data of a request using the body request option, Guzzle provides helpful abstractions over sending POST data.

Sending form fields

Sending application/x-www-form-urlencoded POST requests requires that you specify the POST fields as an array in the form_params request options.

$response = $client->request('POST', 'http://httpbin.org/post', [
    'form_params' => [
        'field_name' => 'abc',
        'other_field' => '123',
        'nested_field' => [
            'nested' => 'hello'
        ]
    ]
]);

Sending form files

You can send files along with a form (multipart/form-data POST requests), using the multipart request option. multipart accepts an array of associative arrays, where each associative array contains the following keys:

  • name: (required, string) key mapping to the form field name.
  • contents: (required, mixed) Provide a string to send the contents of the file as a string, provide an fopen resource to stream the contents from a PHP stream, or provide a Psr\Http\Message\StreamInterface to stream the contents from a PSR-7 stream.
use GuzzleHttp\Psr7;

$response = $client->request('POST', 'http://httpbin.org/post', [
    'multipart' => [
        [
            'name'     => 'field_name',
            'contents' => 'abc'
        ],
        [
            'name'     => 'file_name',
            'contents' => Psr7\Utils::tryFopen('/path/to/file', 'r')
        ],
        [
            'name'     => 'other_file',
            'contents' => 'hello',
            'filename' => 'filename.txt',
            'headers'  => [
                'X-Foo' => 'this is an extra header to include'
            ]
        ]
    ]
]);

Cookies

Guzzle can maintain a cookie session for you if instructed using the cookies request option. When sending a request, the cookies option must be set to an instance of GuzzleHttp\Cookie\CookieJarInterface.

// Use a specific cookie jar
$jar = new \GuzzleHttp\Cookie\CookieJar;
$r = $client->request('GET', 'http://httpbin.org/cookies', [
    'cookies' => $jar
]);

You can set cookies to true in a client constructor if you would like to use a shared cookie jar for all requests.

// Use a shared client cookie jar
$client = new \GuzzleHttp\Client(['cookies' => true]);
$r = $client->request('GET', 'http://httpbin.org/cookies');

Different implementations exist for the GuzzleHttp\Cookie\CookieJarInterface :

  • The GuzzleHttp\Cookie\CookieJar class stores cookies as an array.
  • The GuzzleHttp\Cookie\FileCookieJar class persists non-session cookies using a JSON formatted file.
  • The GuzzleHttp\Cookie\SessionCookieJar class persists cookies in the client session.

You can manually set cookies into a cookie jar with the named constructor fromArray(array $cookies, $domain).

$jar = \GuzzleHttp\Cookie\CookieJar::fromArray(
    [
        'some_cookie' => 'foo',
        'other_cookie' => 'barbaz1234'
    ],
    'example.org'
);

You can get a cookie by its name with the getCookieByName($name) method which returns a GuzzleHttp\Cookie\SetCookie instance.

$cookie = $jar->getCookieByName('some_cookie');

$cookie->getValue(); // 'foo'
$cookie->getDomain(); // 'example.org'
$cookie->getExpires(); // expiration date as a Unix timestamp

The cookies can be also fetched into an array thanks to the toArray() method. The GuzzleHttp\Cookie\CookieJarInterface interface extends Traversable so it can be iterated in a foreach loop.

Redirects

Guzzle will automatically follow redirects unless you tell it not to. You can customize the redirect behavior using the allow_redirects request option.

  • Set to true to enable normal redirects with a maximum number of 5 redirects. This is the default setting.
  • Set to false to disable redirects.
  • Pass an associative array containing the 'max' key to specify the maximum number of redirects and optionally provide a 'strict' key value to specify whether or not to use strict RFC compliant redirects (meaning redirect POST requests with POST requests vs. doing what most browsers do which is redirect POST requests with GET requests).
$response = $client->request('GET', 'http://github.com');
echo $response->getStatusCode();
// 200

The following example shows that redirects can be disabled.

$response = $client->request('GET', 'http://github.com', [
    'allow_redirects' => false
]);
echo $response->getStatusCode();
// 301

Exceptions

Tree View

The following tree view describes how the Guzzle Exceptions depend on each other.

. \RuntimeException
└── TransferException (implements GuzzleException)
    ├── ConnectException (implements NetworkExceptionInterface)
    └── RequestException
        ├── BadResponseException
        │   ├── ServerException
        │   └── ClientException
        └── TooManyRedirectsException

Guzzle throws exceptions for errors that occur during a transfer.

  • A GuzzleHttp\Exception\ConnectException exception is thrown in the event of a networking error. This exception extends from GuzzleHttp\Exception\TransferException.

  • A GuzzleHttp\Exception\ClientException is thrown for 400 level errors if the http_errors request option is set to true. This exception extends from GuzzleHttp\Exception\BadResponseException and GuzzleHttp\Exception\BadResponseException extends from GuzzleHttp\Exception\RequestException.

    use GuzzleHttp\Psr7;
    use GuzzleHttp\Exception\ClientException;
    
    try {
        $client->request('GET', 'https://github.com/_abc_123_404');
    } catch (ClientException $e) {
        echo Psr7\Message::toString($e->getRequest());
        echo Psr7\Message::toString($e->getResponse());
    }
    
  • A GuzzleHttp\Exception\ServerException is thrown for 500 level errors if the http_errors request option is set to true. This exception extends from GuzzleHttp\Exception\BadResponseException.

  • A GuzzleHttp\Exception\TooManyRedirectsException is thrown when too many redirects are followed. This exception extends from GuzzleHttp\Exception\RequestException.

All of the above exceptions extend from GuzzleHttp\Exception\TransferException.

Environment Variables

Guzzle exposes a few environment variables that can be used to customize the behavior of the library.

GUZZLE_CURL_SELECT_TIMEOUT
Controls the duration in seconds that a curl_multi_* handler will use when selecting on curl handles using curl_multi_select(). Some systems have issues with PHP's implementation of curl_multi_select() where calling this function always results in waiting for the maximum duration of the timeout.
HTTP_PROXY

Defines the proxy to use when sending requests using the "http" protocol.

Note: because the HTTP_PROXY variable may contain arbitrary user input on some (CGI) environments, the variable is only used on the CLI SAPI. See https://httpoxy.org for more information.

HTTPS_PROXY
Defines the proxy to use when sending requests using the "https" protocol.
NO_PROXY
Defines URLs for which a proxy should not be used. See proxy for usage.

Relevant ini Settings

Guzzle can utilize PHP ini settings when configuring clients.

openssl.cafile
Specifies the path on disk to a CA file in PEM format to use when sending requests over "https". See: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/tls-peer-verification#phpini_defaults