Reliable PHP API for Hull Identification Number (HIN) OCR

// Get 200 free credits:
// 👉 https://structocr.com/register

<?php

$imagePath = '/path/to/boat_hull.jpg'; // Path to your marine image
$apiKey = 'YOUR_API_KEY'; // Replace with your StructOCR API key

// 1. Read the image file and encode it to Base64 safely
$imageData = file_get_contents($imagePath);
if ($imageData === false) {
    die('❌ Failed to read image file. Check file permissions.');
}
$base64Image = base64_encode($imageData);

// 2. Prepare the JSON payload
$payload = json_encode(['img' => $base64Image]);

// 3. Initialize the cURL session targeting the HIN endpoint
$ch = curl_init('https://api.structocr.com/v1/hin');

// 4. Configure cURL options for a POST request
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $payload,
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        'x-api-key: ' . $apiKey,
        'Content-Type: application/json'
    ],
]);

// 5. Execute the API request
$response = curl_exec($ch);

// 6. Handle cURL network errors
if (curl_errno($ch)) {
    die('❌ cURL error: ' . curl_error($ch));
}
curl_close($ch);

// 7. Decode the structured JSON response into a PHP associative array
$data = json_decode($response, true);

// 8. Safely parse the extracted HIN and attributes
if (isset($data['is_valid']) && $data['is_valid']) {
    echo "✅ Valid HIN Extracted: " . $data['hin_number'] . "\n";
    echo "Confidence: " . $data['confidence'] . "\n";
    
    // Access deeply parsed manufacturing details
    echo "Manufacturer Code: " . $data['parsed']['manufacturer_code'] . "\n";
    echo "Production Year: " . $data['parsed']['model_year'] . "\n";

} else {
    $errorMsg = $data['validation_error'] ?? 'Unknown formatting error.';
    echo "❌ Validation Failed: " . $errorMsg . "\n";
}

?>