Further update -
I used the array option to create the json commands, so that took care of the previous error for required parameters.
But now it is just throwing up a basic error
"errors":"Error"
and the product was still not created.
note: below is the json_encode output (using echo in php)
{"product":{"title":"Burton Custom Freestlye 151 SDD","handle":"Burton Custom Freestlye 151 SDD","body_html":"Burton Custom Freestlye 151 SDD","vendor":"Burton","product_type":"Snowboard","tags":"Snowboard, New Year Specials","published":"true","variants":{"price":"8.00","sku":"trial001","inventory_management":"shopify","inventory_quantity":"10","inventory_policy":"deny"},"images":{"src":"http:\/\/images.highspeedbackbone.net\/skuimages\/large\/LCU-101817904_chiclet01_01_kb_8568093.jpg","metafields":{"key":"alt","value":"Burton Custom Freestlye 151 SDD","value_type":"string","namespace":"tags"}}}}
note: below is the result
{"errors":"Error"}
Everything looks fine now, json_encode is also escaping the slashes in img src value.
If anybody can identify what the "Error" is - I can try to debug that too... but I am just stuck at this point.
Thanks anyway.