When sending data via a POST or PUT request, two common formats (specified via the `Content-Type` header) are:
  * `application/json`
  * `application/x-www-form-urlencoded`

Many APIs will accept both formats, so if you're using `curl` at the command line, it can be a bit easier to use the form urlencoded format instead of json because
  * the json format requires a bunch of extra quoting
  * curl will send form urlencoded by default, so for json the `Content-Type` header must be explicitly set

This gist provides examples for using both formats, including how to use sample data files in either format with your `curl` requests.

### curl usage

For sending data with POST and PUT requests, these are common `curl` options:

 * request type
   * `-X POST`
   * `-X PUT`

 * content type header
  * `-H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded"`
  * `-H "Content-Type: application/json"`
 
* data
  * form urlencoded: `-d "param1=value1&param2=value2"` or `-d @data.txt`
  * json: `-d '{"key1":"value1", "key2":"value2"}'` or `-d @data.json`

##### POST application/x-www-form-urlencoded

`application/x-www-form-urlencoded` is the default:

    curl -d "param1=value1&param2=value2" -X POST http://localhost:3000/data

explicit:

    curl -d "param1=value1&param2=value2" -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -X POST http://localhost:3000/data

with a data file
 
    curl -d "@data.txt" -X POST http://localhost:3000/data

##### POST application/json

    curl -d '{"key1":"value1", "key2":"value2"}' -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST http://localhost:3000/data
    
with a data file
 
    curl -d "@data.json" -X POST http://localhost:3000/data