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Lib Curl, Twitter API & “Expect: 100-continue” PAIN and How To Fix it

Posted December 29th, 2008 by Jeremy Schoemaker

*this post will probably not be worthwhile for 99% of the normal shoemoney.com readers. But for those having the same issue it will be priceless.*

I have been working on a new twitter app for a couple months and at approximately 5pm on December 23rd 2008 (3 days ago) it all went boom.

All of my php curl (lib curl) requests started returning:

HTTP/1.1 417 Expectation Failed

and the exact html returned is:

<html><head>
<title>417 Expectation Failed</title>
</head><body>
<h1>Expectation Failed</h1>
<p>The expectation given in the Expect request-header
field could not be met by this server.</p>
<p>The client sent<pre>
Expect: 100-continue
</pre>
but we only allow the 100-continue expectation.</p>
</body></html>

It appears Twitter started being super anal about requests being sent and in particular the http/1.1 RFC post requests.

Anyway it took be a long time searching the web and trying various things until I figured out the solution by looking at some of the lib curl compilation files.

Just add:

PLAIN TEXT
PHP:
  1. curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Expect:'));

and you will be fixed!

Post written by Jeremy Schoemaker

Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.

More about Jeremy at http://www.shoemoney.com!

Disclaimer

Before acting on this post, be sure to read my Disclaimer.

- Comment Likes - Comment Dislikes

68 comments. What say you?

  1. Good Comment?
    Zx.MYS
    February 21, 2010 at 10:03 am

    Thank you for saving my time!!

    Reply
  2. Good Comment?
    mariochampion
    February 18, 2010 at 7:42 pm

    god bless the internet! (and you, and all the ships at sea ; )

    Reply
  3. Good Comment?
    Hannes
    February 10, 2010 at 6:45 am

    I was using godaddy and wanted to send messages to twitter. It just failed.

    Thanks to you I got it to work. Thanks, mate!

    Reply
  4. 1
     Good Comment?
    Billy Ellison
    December 16, 2009 at 11:01 pm

    Thank you so much! This was really frustrating me

    Reply
  5. Good Comment?
    Naval
    November 28, 2009 at 1:06 am

    Thanks a lot it really help me most i was facing same problem.

    Reply
  6. 1
     Good Comment?
    Symphony
    November 11, 2009 at 9:16 am

    But for those having the same issue it will be priceless.

    Absolutly! It’s really helpful! Thanks a lot!

    Reply
  7. Good Comment?
    Jeans
    October 21, 2009 at 11:58 pm

    Thank you very much.It work!

    Reply
  8. Good Comment?
    matthew
    August 29, 2009 at 11:32 pm

    THANK YOU!!!! Struggled with this for hours until I found your post and then like magic it was fixed. THANK YOU!

    Reply
  9. Good Comment?
    dnuske
    June 7, 2009 at 2:44 am

    god bless you

    and all the people like you around the world

    =)

    Reply
  10. Good Comment?
    blackwinged
    June 3, 2009 at 5:38 am

    yayy, you saved my day!
    wouldn´t have figured this out so quickly on my own.

    Reply
  11. Good Comment?
    danish
    June 1, 2009 at 2:44 am

    thanks man … it really worked :)

    Reply
  12. Good Comment?
    Al Becs
    May 14, 2009 at 2:10 am

    Oh, you should have done great research. Your solution works perfectly!

    thanks!

    Reply
  13. Good Comment?
    mystral-kk
    April 8, 2009 at 1:57 am

    Thanks! Your solution works fine.

    Reply
  14. Good Comment?
    alex
    February 13, 2009 at 12:27 am

    YES! Thanks!

    Reply
  15. Good Comment?
    Rodney Joyce
    January 27, 2009 at 9:30 pm

    There’s some hint as to where to add this line but I am not 100% sure:
    http://devblog.yedda.com/index.php/2007/05/16/twitter-c-library/#comments

    Reply
  16. Good Comment?
    JumpByte
    January 26, 2009 at 1:00 am

    Anybody wanna help me out? I’m using VB.NET and System.Net.ServicePointManager.Expect100Continue = False doesn’t solve my problem :\

    thanks!

    Reply
  17. Good Comment?
    Derek P. Collins
    January 23, 2009 at 12:20 pm

    Ah, thank you so much for this! I wasn’t having this issue on my local server, but when I moved my Twitter app onto the production server I got this error. Your solution fixed it right up! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

    Reply
  18. Good Comment?
    Mike Peters
    January 21, 2009 at 7:27 pm

    Count me in that 1% :-)

    We just had a similar issue with php-cgi and Nginx that took a few hours to trace. Turns out php-cgi adds 2 seconds when your POSTed data contains more than 1,000 characters and missing the Expect header.

    Reply
  19. Good Comment?
    Drew
    January 18, 2009 at 2:53 am

    Thanks for the tip. This is exactly what I needed to make this work at:
    http://twitter.com/CelleCast

    Reply
  20. Good Comment?
    Personal Development Tips
    January 13, 2009 at 10:05 pm

    This is great stuff! I was having this problem exactly! When I searched for 100-continue expectation this is what I found. I added that line and then voila! It worked!

    Great job and thanks a bunch!

    Reply
  21. Good Comment?
    Mr. School Fundraising Ideas
    January 9, 2009 at 10:30 am

    I have heard of Twitter but haven’t quite gotten the whole concept why and how it is a big deal and how it can help you in your business?

    Reply
  22. Good Comment?
    Mr. School Fundraising ideas
    January 5, 2009 at 3:56 pm

    I guess I am not a uber geek because I have no clue what is up with that twitter. The expectation failed but it says that the 100-expect is allowed. What does that mean, crazy stuff, and we wonder if machines will ever take over the human race… sorry to be the let down, they have already.

    Thanks
    Mr. School Fundraising Ideas

    Reply
  23. Good Comment?
    Dick
    January 3, 2009 at 9:44 pm

    I lloked through the stuff again and sopped at the place where there is a photo of your elder daughter. The girl is so cute.She will be a doctor for sure.

    Reply
  24. Good Comment?
    Dick
    January 2, 2009 at 11:40 pm

    I am thinking of the stuff again ready to make some progress in my self-improvement.

    Reply
  25. Good Comment?
    BusinessX
    January 1, 2009 at 2:55 pm

    I am having to advance my programming skills to do some of the things I want to do (including API). So, I imagine I will be returning to this post someday soon.

    Reply
  26. Good Comment?
    Dick
    December 31, 2008 at 9:21 am

    Let’s call a spade a spade.

    Reply
  27. Good Comment?
    Karl hadwen
    December 31, 2008 at 9:14 am

    Thanks for the code love nerdy stuff like this lol

    Reply
  28. Good Comment?
    Karl hadwen
    December 31, 2008 at 9:13 am

    Thanks for this love nerdy code :)

    Reply
  29. Good Comment?
    iskandarX
    December 31, 2008 at 9:12 am

    This is what we call “AMAZING”. Dude you are awsome working for this.

    Reply
  30. Good Comment?
    memory
    December 31, 2008 at 8:35 am

    ummmm, i guess i’m part of the 99%…..it’s all greek to me!

    Reply
  31. Good Comment?
    Typhoon
    December 31, 2008 at 3:55 am

    By the way what’s the new application all about..Is it coming soon in the new year?

    Reply
  32. Good Comment?
    Typhoon
    December 31, 2008 at 3:45 am

    Sorry but shoe didn’t update his blog with this news..
    Google Have Updated PageRank of every blog almost..
    My blog is a PR3 from PR0

    Reply
  33. Good Comment?
    Typhoon
    December 31, 2008 at 3:42 am

    Waiting for your new tool..but no idea what you wrote in this post :{}

    Reply
  34. Good Comment?
    Dick
    December 31, 2008 at 3:34 am

    I ‘ve got interested in the information laying-out. ’tis good to know it.

    Reply
  35. Good Comment?
    Juuso
    December 31, 2008 at 1:03 am

    Nice… but where’s the super affiliate post? :)

    Reply
  36. Good Comment?
    RockaFeller
    December 30, 2008 at 4:30 pm

    Wow, earning so much money and… YOU STILL CODE?!

    Reply
  37. -1
     Good Comment?
    Kyle Irwin
    December 30, 2008 at 12:48 pm

    Welcome to curl101. Retards.

    Reply
  38. Good Comment?
    Joe Tech
    December 30, 2008 at 11:26 am

    Nice error. I just use the API rather than curl, but that has its limitations. I assume you’re making requests that don’t require the user’s twitter account to be authenticated.

    Reply
  39. Good Comment?
    Owen
    December 30, 2008 at 6:17 am

    That come just in time. Working on a Twitter thingy at the moment!

    Reply
  40. Good Comment?
    Learn English Online
    December 30, 2008 at 5:25 am

    Thanks a million for the knowledge.

    Reply
  41. Good Comment?
    Hyder
    December 30, 2008 at 4:27 am

    Thanks for this info my developer might need to know this, it’s all Greek to me, for a twitter widget we’re building.

    Reply
  42. 1
     Good Comment?
    Work At Home
    December 30, 2008 at 3:20 am

    Wow.. I would have give up doing this work by now. Well done

    Reply
  43. Good Comment?
    Blog And Make Cash
    December 30, 2008 at 2:23 am

    Nice trick, I was looking for it since days! curl rocks, definitely.

    Reply
  44. Good Comment?
    Wesley
    December 30, 2008 at 2:03 am

    I’ve used the twitter api with curl as well and never had to do this, this is definitely weird.

    Reply
  45. Good Comment?
    Affiliate Showdown
    December 30, 2008 at 1:33 am

    Im now starting to wonder what you got cooking over there.

    Reply
  46. Good Comment?
    Mark
    December 30, 2008 at 12:46 am

    Long time reader, first time poster. I know enough about Twitter to be dangerous and I got myself banned tonight by signing up with a service called Twauter that creates auto follows. Anyway I do have a twitter app that is pretty cool called ObamaTweet at http://www.obamatweet.com/ . It pulls all Tweets with the word Obama from the Twitter DB and displays a realtime Obama River. I’m getting it ready for a big marketing push before the swearing in. Any tips would be appreciated.
    ~Mark
    mark@adsenserockstar.com

    Reply
  47. Good Comment?
    Taris Janitens
    December 30, 2008 at 12:27 am

    Thanks for the heads up!! I’m sure someone will be able to use this, ableit not me :)

    Reply
  48. Good Comment?
    Day
    December 30, 2008 at 12:26 am

    That’s so you can’t say Expect-100: gimme(document.cookie)

    Reply
  49. Good Comment?
    Jason
    December 30, 2008 at 12:14 am

    Thanks for the heads-up! Just getting my feet wet now with the Twitter API…

    Reply
  50. Good Comment?
    Internet Marketing Industry
    December 29, 2008 at 11:43 pm

    I have to agree with the above – definitely interested in learning about this new app – glad to see you found the solution – maybe the issue happened because of all of the apps being built for twitter now a days -looking forward to what you have to share.

    Reply
  51. Good Comment?
    Brennan
    December 29, 2008 at 10:32 pm

    I know many people who will be able to use this. I haven’t really gotten into the whole Twitter thing yet but it seems like every blogger is saying how great it is so I might just have to join in on it.

    Reply
    • Good Comment?
      Taris Janitens
      December 30, 2008 at 8:53 am

      You and me both – I just don’t wanna be tied to my phone 24-7 personally which is why I am avoiding it

      Reply
      • Good Comment?
        SEO Tips South Africa
        January 2, 2009 at 4:15 am

        I’ve also been avoiding twitter, but it seems that the mainstream pressure is going to force me to re-appraise and try to get into it!

        Reply
  52. Good Comment?
    Internet Marketing Access
    December 29, 2008 at 9:58 pm

    I think I am now more interested in the twitter app that you have been working on for the past few months. lol What does it do or is that a secret?

    Reply
  53. Good Comment?
    Steven-Sanders
    December 29, 2008 at 9:43 pm

    Good to know. Thanks for the great info!

    Reply
  54. Good Comment?
    jtGraphic
    December 29, 2008 at 9:40 pm

    Seriously… I love when you post nerdy stuff :) This stuff is sooo useful. Thanks.

    Reply
    • Good Comment?
      meethere
      December 30, 2008 at 4:14 pm

      can’t wait to see your twitter tool/site… :D

      Reply
      • Good Comment?
        jtGraphic
        December 30, 2008 at 7:00 pm

        Thanks. I’ll keep people posted!

        Reply
  55. Good Comment?
    Wesley
    December 31, 2008 at 2:54 am

    It just means that curl should send an empty “Expect:” header over to twitter, since otherwise twitter may misinterpret.

    Reply
  56. Good Comment?
    Abel Perez
    August 19, 2009 at 2:26 am

    Awesome, thanks for sharing such a nice time saver :)

    Reply

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