» Curl HTTP 417 – Expectation Failed | Chris Mckee Designs, by Chris McKee, who'd of guessed

Curl HTTP 417 – Expectation Failed
July 29, 2009

WordPress XML RPC – HTTP/1.1 417 Expectation Failed

I was nocking up a client script to drag down a news-feed and post it to a WordPress blog; the script ran fine, no posts appeared and no errors occurred… irritating.

So I figured I’d share this pain in the arse issue fix to the “HTTP/1.1 417 Expectation Failed Error”
HTTP/1.1 417 Expectation Failed

$title="Test";
$body="<b>Test</b>";
$rpcurl="http://domain.tld/xmlrpc.php";
$username="";
$password="";
$category="test";
$keywords="test";
 
$encoding='UTF-8';
$title = htmlentities($title,ENT_NOQUOTES,$encoding); 
$keywords = htmlentities($keywords,ENT_NOQUOTES,$encoding); 
 
$content = array( 
	'title'=>$title, 
	'description'=>$body, 
	'mt_allow_comments'=>0,  // 1 pour autoriser les commentaires
	'mt_allow_pings'=>0,  // 1 pour autoriser les trackbacks
	'post_type'=>'post', 
	'mt_keywords'=>$keywords, 
	'categories'=>array($category) 
); 
$params = array(0,$username,$password,$content,true); 
$request = xmlrpc_encode_request('metaWeblog.newPost',$params); 
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, '1');  // DEBUG OUTPUT - Turn this off for your live script (comment out)
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Expect:')); //Fixes the HTTP/1.1 417 Expectation Failed Bug
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $request); 
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $rpcurl);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true); 
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, false); 
$results = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch); 
echo $results;

Or as a function

function wpPostXMLRPC($title,$body,$rpcurl,$username,$password,$category,$keywords='',$encoding='UTF-8')
{
    $title = htmlentities($title,ENT_NOQUOTES,$encoding);
    $keywords = htmlentities($keywords,ENT_NOQUOTES,$encoding);
 
    $content = array(
        'title'=>$title,
        'description'=>$body,
        'mt_allow_comments'=>0,  // 1 to allow comments
        'mt_allow_pings'=>0,  // 1 to allow trackbacks
        'post_type'=>'post',
        'mt_keywords'=>$keywords,
        'categories'=>array($category)
    );
 
    $params = array(0,$username,$password,$content,true);
    $request = xmlrpc_encode_request('metaWeblog.newPost',$params);
    $ch = curl_init();
 
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $request);
	curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Expect:')); //Fixes the HTTP/1.1 417 Expectation Failed Bug
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $rpcurl);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 1);
 
    $results = curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close($ch);
 
    return $results;
}

Just to expand, checkupdown defines the error as follows

Your Web server thinks that the HTTP data stream sent by the client (e.g. CURL) contains a ‘Expect’ request which can not be satisfied. The Expect request is fairly generic i.e. loosely defined in the HTTP protocol. It can specify more than one expectation, each of which may be interpreted differently by different Web servers.

CUD: http://bit.ly/Error417

Hopefully that will save someone banging their frickin skull on the wall

Chris

http://bit.ly/Original-Source-of-Funtion-Prior-to-Fix

| More

21618 ResponsesCurl+HTTP+417+-+Expectation+Failed2009-07-29+10%3A30%3A50Chris+McKee to “ Curl HTTP 417 – Expectation Failed ”

Zashkaser , on August 6th, 2009 at 8:03 am Said:

I rarely comment on blogs but yours I had to stop and say Great Blog!!
Joseph Scott , on August 7th, 2009 at 7:07 pm Said:

Using the IXR PHP XML-RPC library would make this easier. It takes care of the transport level items (that you are using curl for) and allows you to focus on calling methods and processing the results.

The IXR library ships with WordPress and is found at wp-includes/class-IXR.php.
Chris McKee , on August 7th, 2009 at 8:35 pm Said:

@JS Aye good point, but the blog I was targeting was actually on WordPress.com rather then hosted. Usual case of Marketing v IT for getting things done; sometimes its quicker to go else where ;o)

Thanks
Hamish , on November 13th, 2009 at 3:48 am Said:

Woo, you just saved my skull. Cheers!
Sirviejo , on January 6th, 2010 at 1:29 am Said:

oh men! this is great.. thanks for this line curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Expect:'));

this line saves me!!
Daniele Pignedoli , on January 12th, 2010 at 12:01 am Said:

Wow thanks man, im one of those whom you saved a nasty headcache
zappak , on February 9th, 2010 at 6:29 am Said:

hey...

earlier I was able to work it properly but after changed my hosting it 's not working..

it's showing faultCode 403 faultString Bad login/pass combination.

there is all detail is correct I dont' know wht's prob there

Can you help me out??
Chris McKee , on February 9th, 2010 at 10:15 am Said:

@zappak: Try changing your password in what ever it is your trying to communicate with then remember to change iit in your script; if its not that then something went wrong with the service authentication process (403 faultString Bad login/pass combination.). Try changing the credentials or contacting your hosting support (as they should be able to test the same thing).
Wesam Alalem , on March 13th, 2010 at 10:47 am Said:

You saved my day! thanks a lot
Smoothcoder , on June 28th, 2010 at 6:13 pm Said:

Argh!! HTTP error 417 I was searching since Y.

Thanks AGAIN for this line curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Expect:'));
andrew , on August 31st, 2011 at 7:41 am Said:

Thanks thanks thanks!!!
Malcolm Slade , on September 5th, 2011 at 4:35 pm Said:

Sorry to dig up an old post but... thank fook!!!! I was literally about to rewrite my code. Thank you.

Now if only I could figure out why this just started happening and wasn't happening all along!!!
Robin , on October 17th, 2011 at 12:18 pm Said:

Great! Thx a lot for curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Expect:'));
thomas , on November 12th, 2011 at 6:24 pm Said:

@recent commenters

why reinvent the wheel? this functionality is already built in WP
Ducky , on November 22nd, 2011 at 3:33 am Said:

Awesome! That fixed my problem
Thanks!!
Ziz , on December 29th, 2011 at 5:09 am Said:

Thank you thank you thank you!! I've been banging my head on this one for TWO weeks!!! Great post.
Gyanesh Singh , on January 5th, 2012 at 8:55 am Said:

Super stuff. Spent or I must say wasted one day trying to find a solution for this till I hit this page. Thanks a ton.
- Gyanesh
ifft , on January 17th, 2012 at 11:22 am Said:

Awesome fix! That "CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Expect:'))" line saved me hours of re-writing workaround! Used it to post a form on another non-wp site.

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Curl HTTP 417 – Expectation Failed

WordPress XML RPC – HTTP/1.1 417 Expectation Failed

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21618 ResponsesCurl+HTTP+417+-+Expectation+Failed2009-07-29+10%3A30%3A50Chris+McKee to “ Curl HTTP 417 – Expectation Failed ”