Retrieve post request in joomla sent from external app

Question

I have created a script in Joomla app root folder for creating users which load joomla framework ..

The script works fine with static data (username, password ..) but the task that i have consist on sending those data in a post request from an angular app to that script in joomla.

The problem is the part in my script using joomla doesn't allow processing the data sent. Is there a way to do this ?

Here is the script :

<?php

header("Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *");
header('Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true');
header("Access-Control-Allow-Methods: PUT, GET, POST, DELETE");
header("Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Origin, X-Requested-With, Content-Type, Accept");
header("Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8");


$postdata = file_get_contents("php://input");

$request = json_decode($postdata);

$username = $request->username;
$name = $request->ecoleName;
$email = $request->email;

$password = $request->password;

print_r($password);


// Set flag that this is a parent file
define('_JEXEC', 1);

define('JPATH_BASE', dirname(__FILE__));

define('DS', DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR);

require_once(JPATH_BASE . DS . 'includes' . DS . 'defines.php');
require_once(JPATH_BASE . DS . 'includes' . DS . 'framework.php');
require_once(JPATH_BASE . DS . 'libraries' . DS . 'joomla' . DS . 'factory.php');

$mainframe = &JFactory::getApplication('site');
$mainframe->initialise();
ini_set('default_charset', 'utf-8');
include('database_settings.php');


if (is_null($email)) {
    throw new Exception("Email is required to create new Joomla! user.");
}
$uniqid = uniqid();
if (is_null($name)) {
    $name = 'member-' . $uniqid;
}
if (is_null($username)) {
    $username = $name;
}
if (is_null($password)) {
    $password = $uniqid;
}

try {
    // Create new user.
    jimport('joomla.application.component.helper');
    $params = 'com_users';
    $usersParams = JComponentHelper::getParams($params);
    $new_user = JFactory::getUser(0);
    $config = JComponentHelper::getParams('com_users');
    $authorize    = &JFactory::getACL();
    $defaultUserGroup = $config->get('new_usertype');
    if (!$defaultUserGroup) {
        $defaultUserGroup = 'Registered';
    }

    $jdata = array(
        "name" => $name,
        "username" => $username,
        "password" => $password,
        "password2" => $password,
        "email" => $email,
        "sendEmail" => 0,
        "groups" => array($defaultUserGroup)
    );

    print_r($jdata);

    // Automatically activate user. Comment this out if you use double
    // opt-in method.
    $useractivation = $usersParams->get('useractivation');
    if ($useractivation === 1) {
        jimport('joomla.user.helper');
        $jdata['activation'] = JUtility::getHash(JUserHelper::genRandomPassword());
        $jdata['block'] = 1; // block the user
    } else {
        $jdata['block'] = 0; // don't block the user
    }

    // Write new user to the Joomla! database.
    if (!$new_user->bind($jdata)) {
        throw new Exception("Could not bind data. Error: " . $new_user->getError());
        return false;
    }


    // Set some initial user values
    $new_user->set('id', 0);
    $new_user->set('usertype', $defaultUserGroup);
    $new_user->set('gid', $authorize->get_group_id('', $defaultUserGroup, 'ARO'));

    // If user activation is turned on, we need to set the activation information
    $useractivation = $config->get('useractivation');
    if ($useractivation == '1') {
        jimport('joomla.user.helper');
        $new_user->set('activation', JUtility::getHash(JUserHelper::genRandomPassword()));
        $new_user->set('block', '1');
    }

    // If there was an error with registration, set the message and display form
    if (!$new_user->save()) {
        throw new Exception("Could not save user. Error: " . $new_user->getError());
        return false;
    }

    // Send registration confirmation mail
    $password = JRequest::getString('password', '', 'post', JREQUEST_ALLOWRAW);
    $password = preg_replace('/[\x00-\x1F\x7F]/', '', $password); //Disallow control chars in the email
    UserController::_sendMail($new_user, $password);

    // Everything went fine, set relevant message depending upon user activation state and display message
    if ($useractivation == 1) {
        $message  = JText::_('REG_COMPLETE_ACTIVATE');
    } else {
        $message = JText::_('REG_COMPLETE');
    }

    // Finally, you can return the new user Id.
    $cuser = CFactory::getUser($new_user->id);
    return $cuser;
} catch (Exception $ex) {
    // consoleLog("could not create user: " . $ex->getMessage());
    throw new Exception($ex->getMessage(), $ex->getCode(), $ex->getPrevious());
    return false;
}

Answer 1

You could do this more easily via a module that is published on a certain page (in joomla) which listen for such requests. I've scripted something like this already. An important point is to define a "securitytoken" for those requests.

I've played around with and endpoint that returned all joomla articles into an iOS App on request.

After that Ive created a "database changer" module that will do some tasks when triggered by a security token - you can see my solution here: https://github.com/marcorensch/mod_db_data_changer

hope this helps

Edit: I've just seen that you had added the Joomla-1.5 tag to your question i hope you are not still using J1.5?