Send a cURL POST request to an external url with parameters from controller

Question

Is there any way to redirect to external url with parameters from a controller? I'm using joomla 2.5.9 and I have a controller that sends emails to the administrator. After an email is sent successfully, I need to send some details to another site for further proceedings. Can I use cURL like core php ? Here is my controller code :

$mailer = JFactory::getMailer();
            $config = JFactory::getConfig();
            $sender = array($config->getValue( 'config.mailfrom' ),$config->getValue( 'config.fromname' ));
            $mailer->setSender($sender);
            $admin = JFactory::getUser(42);
            $admin_email = ($admin->email)? $admin->email: $config->getValue( 'config.mailfrom' );
            $mailer->addRecipient($admin_email);
            $mailer->setSubject('New Reservation ('.ucfirst($data['package_hotel']).')');
            $body   = 'Dear Manager,<br><br>'
                    .'<div>You have received a new reservation request ('.$data['package_hotel'].') from '
                    .$data['name'].'. '
                    .'"'.$package_hotel_name.'" '.$data['package_hotel'].' dated '.$data['date_from'].'.</div><br>'
                    .'<h3>Details</h3>'
                    .'<div>Name: '.$data['name'].'</div>'
                    .'<div>Address: '.$data['address'].'</div>'
                    .'<div>Email: '.$data['email'].'</div>'
                    .'<div>Mobile Number: '.$data['mobile'].'</div>'
                    .'<div>Phone Number: '.$data['phone'].'</div>'
                    .'<div>Arrival Date: '.$data['date_from'].'</div>'
                    .'<div>Departure Date: '.$data['date_to'].'</div>'
                    .'<div>'.ucfirst($data['package_hotel']).': '.$package_hotel_name.'</div>'
                    .'<div>No of Adults: '.$data['adults'].'</div>'
                    .'<div>No of Children: '.$data['children'].'</div>'
                    .'<div>Comments: '.$data['message'].'</div>'
                    .'<br><br><div>Regards,</div>'
                    .'<div>Godwin Holidays</div>';
            $mailer->isHTML(true);
            $mailer->Encoding = 'base64';
            $mailer->setBody($body);
            $send = $mailer->Send();

If email sent successfully, then I want to send the above details to some other site say example.com. I'm new to Joomla, so please help me

Answer 1

Firstly 2.5.9 is 4 and a half years old and has a number of known security holes.

Secondly, it sounds like you want to make a curl post request and not any kind of redirect.

If the email is sent then the $send variable will be truthy so you would write something like the following straight after your code above.

if($send){
   // set your destination
   $url = 'https://example.com/have_some_data';

   // build up array of all the data you wish to send
   $fields = array(
       'name' => $data['name'],
       'address' => $data['address']
   );

   // prep data to work with default content type (will probably work)
   $fields_string = http_build_query($fields);

   // send the data
   $ch = curl_init();
   curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,$url);
   curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST,1);
   curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,$fields_string);
   curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
   $response = curl_exec($ch);
}