PHP json_encode($_POST) and mySQL issue - php

Question

I am trying to json_encode($_POST) in PHP, but I have one small problem.
On my $_POST sometimes I get some encoded JSON as example below:
Array
(
[module] => {"media":true}
)
Where module contains a JSON string. My problem is when I use json_encode($POST); I get a result like this:
{"module":"{\"petMedia\":true}"}
Trying to insert into mySQL JSON column, I get this error
Invalid JSON text: "Missing a comma or '}' after an object member.
It's not possible for me to decode the string before because not always I get encoded JSON.
Thanks.

Answer 1

If I had POST variables coming in where sometimes they have json encoded in it, or not... one way to handle it, would be a cleanup loop.
Lets say this is the POST in:
$_POST -> 'var1' = 'some string'
-> 'var2' = '2315'
-> 'var3' = '{"some":"json"}'
Now, I would setup a little cleaner, because you cannot just json_encode($_POST) as you found out. It double encodes the var3.
$clean = array();
foreach($_POST as $key => $val) {
json_decode($val);// test
if (json_last_error() == JSON_ERROR_NONE) {
$clean[$key] = json_decode($val);// $val is json, so pre-decode it
} else {
$clean[$key] = $val;// its not real json, so assign straight
}
}
print_r($clean);
print_r(json_encode($clean));
Results in:
Array (
[var1] => some string
[var2] => 2315
[var3] => stdClass Object
(
[some] => json
)
)
// this then is a json encoded string, which is good:
{"var1":"some string","var2":2315,"var3":{"some":"json"}}
Basically, this then makes a full object which you can now store into the database safely, since all variables and their values are json encodable.
I hope this helps you get started, and you dont actually have normal variables inside json strings, that are not json encoded, and and and and ;)

Answer 2

A variation on a theme perhaps
/* emulate POST */
$_POST=array(
'php'=>'fantastic',
'javascript'=>'awesome',
'asp'=>'awful',
'module'=>json_encode( array( 'media' => true ) )
);
/* process the POST array and decode any json data within */
array_walk( $_POST, function( &$value ){
$tmp=json_decode( $value );
if( json_last_error() == 0 )$value=$tmp;
});
/* encode the POST data */
$encoded=json_encode( $_POST );
Outputs:
{"php":"fantastic","javascript":"awesome","asp":"awful","module":{"media":true}}