What is the purpose of using HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA in PHP and what are the potential issues when trying to read data from it?

When trying to read data from HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA in PHP, you may encounter issues such as the data not being available due to various server configurations or deprecated PHP versions. To solve this, you can use the php://input stream to access raw POST data in PHP.

// Check if HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA is available
if(isset($HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA)){
    $rawData = $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA;
} else {
    // Use php://input stream to access raw POST data
    $rawData = file_get_contents('php://input');
}

// Process the raw data
// Example: 
$data = json_decode($rawData);