HTTP POST/ METHOD to Emoncms doesn't work

Question

So Ive setup the emoncms on my server and posted the example power1:100...power3:300 JSON POST and it logged in my INPUTS. Now Im trying to send data from my arduino and it seems to post fine, but when I go to the INPUTS its not there for some reason.

Here is my code. Im just posting a temperature value to a new node:

#include "SoftwareSerial.h"
//For DHT22 Grove Pro
#include "DHT.h"
#define DHTPIN A1 // what pin we're connected to
#define DHTTYPE DHT22 // DHT 22 (AM2302)
DHT dht(DHTPIN, DHTTYPE);
String ssid ="myssid";
String password="mypassword";
String server = "www.santiapps.com"; // www.example.com
String uri = "/emoncms/input/post.json";// our example is /esppost.php
#define EMON_APIKEY F("myapikey")
byte dat [5];
String temp ,hum;
String data;
char dataString[200];
SoftwareSerial esp(6, 7);// RX, TX
void setup() {
 esp.begin(9600);
 Serial.begin(9600);
 Serial.println("setup");
 reset();
 connectWifi();
}
void reset() {
 Serial.println("reset");
 esp.println("AT+RST");
 delay(1000);
 if(esp.find("OK") ) Serial.println("Module Reset");
}
void connectWifi() {
 Serial.println("connect to wifi"); 
 String cmd = "AT+CWJAP=\"" +ssid+"\",\"" + password + "\"";
 esp.println(cmd);
 delay(400);
 while (esp.available()){
 String inData = esp.readStringUntil('\n');
 Serial.println("Got reponse from ESP8266: " + inData);
 }
 if(esp.find("OK")) {
 Serial.println("Connected!");
 } else {
 connectWifi();
 Serial.println("Cannot connect to wifi"); }
}
void start_test () {
 //For DHT22 Grove Pro
 static char outstr1[15];
 static char outstr2[15];
 float h = dht.readHumidity();
 float t = dht.readTemperature();
 dtostrf(t, 8, 2, dataString);
 Serial.println(dataString);
}
void loop(){
 Serial.println("loop");
 start_test();
 httppost();
 delay(100000);
}
void httppost () {
 esp.println("AT+CIPSTART=\"TCP\",\"" + server + "\",80");//start a TCP connection.
 if( esp.find("OK")) {
 Serial.println("TCP connection ready");
 } 
 delay(1000);
 String postRequest="POST " + uri + " HTTP/1.0\r\n"+"Host: " + server + "\r\n" + "Accept: *" + "/" + "*\r\n"+"Content-Length: " + strlen(dataString) + "\r\n" + "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n"+"\r\n" + "&node=fortnite&data={a:" + dataString + "}" + "&apikey=" + EMON_APIKEY;
 Serial.println(postRequest);
 String sendCmd = "AT+CIPSEND=";//determine the number of caracters to be sent.
 esp.print(sendCmd);
 esp.println(postRequest.length());
 delay(500);
 if(esp.find(">")) { 
 Serial.println("Sending.."); 
 esp.print(postRequest);
 if(esp.find("SEND OK")) { 
 Serial.println("Packet sent");
 while (esp.available()) {
 String tmpResp = esp.readString();
 Serial.println(tmpResp);
 }
 // close the connection
 esp.println("AT+CIPCLOSE");
 }
 }
}

Here is my Serial Monitor:

setup
reset
connect to wifi
Got reponse from ESP8266: AT+CWsetup
reset
Module Reset
connect to wifi
Got reponse from ESP8266:
Got reponse from ESP8266: CLOSED
Got reponse from ESP8266: WIFI DISCONNECT
Got reponse from ESP8266: `BԄQR���ȤRN�ɤRN�H��OAT+CWJAP="tha
connect to wifi
Got reponse from ESP8266: %J:E
Got reponse from ESP8266: HըRP="myssid","mypassword"
Got reponse from ESP8266: busy p...
connect to wifi
Got reponse from ESP8266: AT+CWJAP="myssid","mypassword"
Got reponse from ESP8266: busy p...
Got reponse from ESP8266:
Got reponse from ESP8266: O
connect to wifi
Got reponse from ESP8266: AT+CWJAP="myssid","mypassword"
Got reponse from ESP8266: WIFI DISCONNEC
Connected!
Cannot connect to wifi
Cannot connect to wifi
Cannot connect to wifi
loop
31.00
TCP connection ready
POST /emoncms/input/post.json HTTP/1.0
Host: www.myserver.com
Accept: /
Content-Length: 8
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
 &node=fortnite&data={a: 31.00}&apikey=mykey
 Sending..
 Packet sent
 +IPD,422:HTTP/1.1 200 OK
 Server: nginx
 Date: 2018年10月02日 21:38:18 GMT
 Content-Type: application/json
 Connection: close
 X-Powered-By: PHP/5.4.16
 Expires: 1981年11月19日 08:52:00 GMT
 Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
 Pragm

Here is a snapshot of the posted data when I used this URL directly in my browser: My emoncms http://santiapps.com/emoncms/input/post?node=emontx&fulljson={"power1":100,"power2":200,"power3":300}&apikey=mykey

=========

Based on jose's suggestion:

I changed this code to:

void httppost () {
 esp.println("AT+CIPSTART=\"TCP\",\"" + server + "\",80");//start a TCP connection.
 if( esp.find("OK")) {
 Serial.println("TCP connection ready");
 }
// //CODE USED TO BUILD COMPLETE STRING
 String apiKeyString="apikey="; 
 apiKeyString.concat(EMON_APIKEY); //JOIN PARAMETER LITERAL STRING => String Object
 //Serial.println(apiKeyString); //THIS IS NOW A STRING OBJECT
 String nodeData="&node=fortnite&data={\"a\":";
 String combinado=apiKeyString+nodeData; //COMBINE BOTH PREVIOUS STRING OBJECTS
 String finalData=combinado + dataString + "}"; //COMBINE STRING OBJECT WITH CHAR[]
 Serial.println("finalData");
 Serial.println(finalData); 
 //unsigned int tamano = strlen(dataString);
// char postThis[100] = finalData;
// //ADDING THIS TO POSTREQUEST +finalData; && changing length for strlen(finalData)
 delay(1000);
 String postRequest="POST " + uri + " HTTP/1.1\r\n"+"Host: " + server + "\r\n" + "Accept: *" + "/" + "*\r\n"+"Content-Length: " + finalData.length() + "\r\n" + "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n"+"\r\n" + finalData;
 Serial.println("postRequest");
 Serial.println(postRequest);
 String sendCmd = "AT+CIPSEND=";//determine the number of caracters to be sent.

but now I dont even get the HTTP200OK response. The result is:

loop
31.30
finalData
apikey=myKey&node=fortnite&data={"a":31.30}
postRequest

Answer 1

Your Serial monitor output shows the content of the POST as:

&node=fortnite&data={a: 31.00}&apikey=mykey

I can't tell if the & are actually in your serial monitor, or if your copy/paste did some kind of HTML format attempt, but & is wrong and should be &

Your JSON data is not proper JSON

{a: 31.00}

should be

{"a": 31.00}

---

Strangely, your serial monitor output also writes Host: www.myserver.com, which doesn't match your code, where server was assigned www.santiapps.com, so that makes it difficult to trust that the serial output you show actually came from the code.

• marciokoko: Ok I fixed the & format issue, it was indeed copy/paste problem. It is the proper output, I just went through it and replaced ssid, password, apikey and server name. Everything else is the same. How do I get the "" around the letter a? Im trying this: "&node=fortnite&data={" + "a:" + dataString + "}"; but I get this => &node=fortnite&data={a:29.00}
• jose can u c: You can escape the quote character with a backslash: "&node=fortnite&data={" + "\"a\":" + dataString + "}"
• marciokoko: Thanks, one last thing, it was brought to my attention that my Content Length for the POST request needs to be the length of everything from &node....up until the json data...{"a":29.40}. Could that be the cause of the post not working?
• jose can u c: You send a content-length generated by strlen(dataString). This is not quite right. The HTTP Post payload portion is found in this part of your code: &node=fortnite&data={a:" + dataString + "}" + "&apikey=" + EMON_APIKEY. Calculate the length of that to find the content-length. I also noticed that you start your POST content with &, but you don't need one at the beginning. It is just to separate fields, like node=fortnite&data={a:" + dataString + "}" + "&apikey=" + EMON_APIKEY
• marciokoko: I added my most recent try but it also fails to post.