[php] AngularJS HTTP post to PHP and undefined

I have a form with the tag ng-submit="login()

The function gets called fine in javascript.

function LoginForm($scope, $http)
{
    $http.defaults.headers.post['Content-Type'] = 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8';

    $scope.email    = "[email protected]";
    $scope.password = "1234";

    $scope.login = function()
    {
        data = {
            'email' : $scope.email,
            'password' : $scope.password
        };

        $http.post('resources/curl.php', data)
        .success(function(data, status, headers, config)
        {
            console.log(status + ' - ' + data);
        })
        .error(function(data, status, headers, config)
        {
            console.log('error');
        });
    }
}

I am getting a 200 OK response back from the PHP file, however, the returned data is saying that email and password are undefined. This is all the php I have

<?php
$email = $_POST['email'];
$pass  = $_POST['password'];
echo $email;
?>

Any idea why I am getting undefined POST values?

EDIT

I wanted to point out since this seems to be a popular question (yet it is old), .success and .error have been deprecated and you should use .then as @James Gentes pointed out in the commments

This is the best solution (IMO) as it requires no jQuery and no JSON decode:

Source: https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/a/179373 and: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1714899/196507

Summary:

//Replacement of jQuery.param
var serialize = function(obj, prefix) {
  var str = [];
  for(var p in obj) {
    if (obj.hasOwnProperty(p)) {
      var k = prefix ? prefix + "[" + p + "]" : p, v = obj[p];
      str.push(typeof v == "object" ?
        serialize(v, k) :
        encodeURIComponent(k) + "=" + encodeURIComponent(v));
    }
  }
  return str.join("&");
};

//Your AngularJS application:
var app = angular.module('foo', []);

app.config(function ($httpProvider) {
    // send all requests payload as query string
    $httpProvider.defaults.transformRequest = function(data){
        if (data === undefined) {
            return data;
        }
        return serialize(data);
    };

    // set all post requests content type
    $httpProvider.defaults.headers.post['Content-Type'] = 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8';
});

Example:

...
   var data = { id: 'some_id', name : 'some_name' };
   $http.post(my_php_url,data).success(function(data){
        // It works!
   }).error(function() {
        // :(
   });

PHP code:

<?php
    $id = $_POST["id"];
?>

I do it on the server side, at the begining of my init file, works like a charm and you don't have to do anything in angular or existing php code:

if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST' && empty($_POST))
    $_POST = json_decode(file_get_contents('php://input'), true);

Angular Js Demo Code :-

angular.module('ModuleName',[]).controller('main', ['$http', function($http){

                var formData = { password: 'test pwd', email : 'test email' };
                var postData = 'myData='+JSON.stringify(formData);
                $http({
                        method : 'POST',
                        url : 'resources/curl.php',
                        data: postData,
                        headers : {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'}  

                }).success(function(res){
                        console.log(res);
                }).error(function(error){
                        console.log(error);
        });

        }]);

Server Side Code :-

<?php


// it will print whole json string, which you access after json_decocde in php
$myData = json_decode($_POST['myData']);
print_r($myData);

?>

Due to angular behaviour there is no direct method for normal post behaviour at PHP server, so you have to manage it in json objects.

In the API I am developing I have a base controller and inside its __construct() method I have the following:

if(isset($_SERVER["CONTENT_TYPE"]) && strpos($_SERVER["CONTENT_TYPE"], "application/json") !== false) {
    $_POST = array_merge($_POST, (array) json_decode(trim(file_get_contents('php://input')), true));
}

This allows me to simply reference the json data as $_POST["var"] when needed. Works great.

That way if an authenticated user connects with a library such a jQuery that sends post data with a default of Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded or Content-Type: application/json the API will respond without error and will make the API a little more developer friendly.

Hope this helps.

Because PHP does not natively accept JSON 'application/json' One approach is to update your headers and parameters from angular so that your api can use the data directly.

First, Parameterize your data:

data: $.param({ "foo": $scope.fooValue })

Then, add the following to your $http

 headers: {
     'Content-Type' : 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8'
 }, 

If all of your requests are going to PHP the parameters can be set globaly in the configuration as follows:

myApp.config(function($httpProvider) {
    $httpProvider.defaults.headers.post['Content-Type'] = 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8';
});

It took me hours to understand that while working with Angular and PHP. Post data was not going to PHP in $_POST

in PHP code do the following. - Create a variable $angular_post_params - Then do the following $angular_http_params = (array)json_decode(trim(file_get_contents('php://input')));

now you can access your parameters like you do from $_POST

$angular_http_params["key"]

in case you were wondering about javascript....this is what i used

    var myApp = angular.module('appUsers', []);
    //var post_params = $.param({ request_type: "getListOfUsersWithRolesInfo" });
    var dataObj = {
        task_to_perform: 'getListOfUsersWithRolesInfo'
    };

    myApp.controller('ctrlListOfUsers', function ($scope, $http) {
        $http({
            method: 'POST',
            dataType: 'json',
            url: ajax_processor_url,
            headers: {
                'Content-Type': 'application/json'
            },
            data: dataObj,
            //transformRequest: function(){},
            timeout: 30000,
            cache: false
        }).
        success(function (rsp) {
            console.log("success");
            console.log(rsp);
        }).
        error(function (rsp) {
            console.log("error");
        });
    });

It's an old question but it worth to mention that in Angular 1.4 $httpParamSerializer is added and when using $http.post, if we use $httpParamSerializer(params) to pass the parameters, everything works like a regular post request and no JSON deserializing is needed on server side.

https://docs.angularjs.org/api/ng/service/$httpParamSerializer

You need to deserialize your form data before passing it as the second parameter to .post (). You can achieve this using jQuery's $.param (data) method. Then you will be able to on server side to reference it like $.POST ['email'];