How to grab this nested string in JSON with PHP? - php

Question

I am looping through email bodies that are nothing but JSON output. I am trying to grab a single string emailAddress, but I am unsure of the syntax. I am able to get to the Message portion of the JSON, but anything else I try to access, I end up getting Illegal string offset.
So, if my JSON is:
[Type] => Notification
[MessageId] => gibberishhere
[TopicArn] => arn:aws:somethingsomethingsomething
[Message] => {
"notificationType":"Bounce",
"bounce":{
"feedbackId":"blahblahblahblahblah",
"bounceType":"Permanent",
"bounceSubType":"General",
"bouncedRecipients":[{
"emailAddress":"bounce#simulator.amazonses.com",
"action":"failed",
"status":"5.1.1",
"diagnosticCode":"smtp; 550 5.1.1 user unknown"}],
"timestamp":"2020-11-02T16:37:13.000Z",
"remoteMtaIp":"ip.address.here",
"reportingMTA":"dsn; somethingsomething"},
"mail":{
"timestamp":"2020-11-02T16:37:13.029Z",
"source":"test#emailaddress.com",
"sourceArn":"arn:somethingsomethingdotcom",
"sourceIp":"ip.address.here",
"sendingAccountId":"somethingsomething",
"messageId":"numbersnumbersnumbers1234567890",
"destination":["bounce#simulator.amazonses.com"]
}
}
[Timestamp] => 2020-11-02T16:37:13.677Z
[SignatureVersion] => 1
[Signature] => blahblahblah
[SigningCertURL] => blahblahblah
[UnsubscribeURL] => blahblahblah
And I have this to decode it:
$message = json_decode($message, true);
echo $message['Message'];
I get this output:
{
"notificationType":"Bounce",
"bounce":{
"feedbackId":"blahblahblahblahblah",
"bounceType":"Permanent",
"bounceSubType":"General",
"bouncedRecipients":[{
"emailAddress":"bounce#simulator.amazonses.com", <---- I NEED THIS FIELD
"action":"failed",
"status":"5.1.1",
"diagnosticCode":"smtp; 550 5.1.1 user unknown"}],
"timestamp":"2020-11-02T16:37:13.000Z",
"remoteMtaIp":"ip.address.here",
"reportingMTA":"dsn; e226-55.smtp-out.us-east-2.amazonses.com"},
"mail":{
"timestamp":"2020-11-02T16:37:13.029Z",
"source":"test#emailaddress.com",
"sourceArn":"arn:somethingsomethingdotcom",
"sourceIp":"ip.address.here",
"sendingAccountId":"somethingsomething",
"messageId":"numbersnumbers1234567890",
"destination":["bounce#simulator.amazonses.com"]
}
}
All I need is the emailAddress field. How far in do I need to go to grab it? I've tried
$message['Message']['bounce'], $message['Message']['emailAddress'], and several others, but they all return Illegal string offset.

Answer 1

Working with an associative array is relatively easy, so as suggested in the comment:
$arr = json_decode($message['Message'], true);
Now all you need to do is reference the correct element, follow the path:
echo $arr['bounce']['bouncedRecipients'][0]['emailAddress'];
Which gives:
bounce#simulator.amazonses.com
EDIT: How to reference element emailAddress - explain the [0] index
To get a good view of the array structure of $arr, you can use:
echo '<pre>';
print_r($arr);
echo '</pre>';
Which outputs:
Array
(
[notificationType] => Bounce
[bounce] => Array
(
[feedbackId] => blahblahblahblahblah
[bounceType] => Permanent
[bounceSubType] => General
[bouncedRecipients] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[emailAddress] => bounce#simulator.amazonses.com
[action] => failed
[status] => 5.1.1
[diagnosticCode] => smtp; 550 5.1.1 user unknown
)
)
[timestamp] => 2020-11-02T16:37:13.000Z
[remoteMtaIp] => ip.address.here
[reportingMTA] => dsn; e226-55.smtp-out.us-east-2.amazonses.com
)
[mail] => Array
(
[timestamp] => 2020-11-02T16:37:13.029Z
[source] => test#emailaddress.com
[sourceArn] => arn:somethingsomethingdotcom
[sourceIp] => ip.address.here
[sendingAccountId] => somethingsomething
[messageId] => numbersnumbers1234567890
[destination] => Array
(
[0] => bounce#simulator.amazonses.com
)
)
)
Now all you need to do is follow the 'path' to the element you'd like to reference. I.e. for emailAddress let's take the reverse 'route':
emailAddress lives in an array with key [0] (there you have it, key [0])
key [0] lives in an array with key [bouncedRecipients]
key [bouncedRecipients] lives in an array with key [bounce]
key [bounce] lives in the root of array $arr.
So there you have it, the path to your element:
['bounce']['bouncedRecipients'][0]['emailAddress']