Roku Developer Program

Join our online forum to talk to Roku developers and fellow channel creators. Ask questions, share tips with the community, and find helpful resources.
cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
EnTerr
Roku Guru

HowTo: curl URL-encode for ECP /input

TL-DnR:
curl -fG -X POST http://192.168.1.28:8060/input --data-urlencode "ala=ba&la"

Long form: I just spent significant time figuring this out, so decided to share as "recipe". TFM says that ECP /input is to be (a) POST-ed, (b) with arguments in the URL (not the body) and (c) URL-encoded. So, how do we do this from command line (mostly for dev/test/debug purposes) with CURL ?

The input example uses -d and "cheats" on (c) by not using characters that need escaping - or ass-umes the %-encoding will be done manually by the human or extra script (ick!). Now, after some research i figured:

  • curl has a way to do URL-encode with "--data-urlencode key=value"

  • ... but it will send the application/x-www-form-urlencoded params in the BODY (no good for ECP!)

  • ... unless you use -G, which will send the params in the URL

  • ... except `curl -G -d '' ` uses GET instead of POST (-d's magic is weak, -G trumps it) and that fails with `400 Bad Request`

  • ... luckily we can force it with `-X POST`

And there you have it. PITA. Bonus: use the "-f" in curl so it reports the HTTP errors.

PS. One more tip: want to "input" a multi-line value? Sure, instead of `--data-urlencode key=value` use `--data-urlencode key@myFileName` and curl will read the value from the file specified. Or substitute "-" for file name (e.g. key@-) and it will read from stdin.
0 Kudos
Need Assistance?
Welcome to the Roku Community! Feel free to search our Community for answers or post your question to get help.

Become a Roku Streaming Expert!

Share your expertise, help fellow streamers, and unlock exclusive rewards as part of the Roku Community. Learn more.