Telegram bot using PHP - echo doesn't work - php

Question

I'm trying to use Google Maps API to calculate time and distance between two spots. My code is rather simple and it works (used codepad and it runs smoothly) but when I deploy the code and try to use the service the bot gives me wrong answers...
This is the code:
$details = "http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/distancematrix/json?origins=Miami&destinations=Miami+Beach&mode=driving&sensor=false";
$json = file_get_contents($details);
$arr = json_decode($json, TRUE);
$distance = $arr[rows][0][elements][0][distance][text];
$time = $arr[rows][0][elements][0][duration][text];
$response = "You should be there in $time. Total distance you'll cover: $distance";
$parameters = array('chat_id' => $chatId, "text" => $response);
$parameters["method"] = "sendMessage";
echo json_encode($parameters);
This is what the bot answers me:
"You should be there in {. Total distance you'll cover: {";
And this is the actual json:
{
"destination_addresses" : [ "Miami Beach, Florida, Stati Uniti" ],
"origin_addresses" : [ "Miami, Florida, Stati Uniti" ],
"rows" : [
{
"elements" : [
{
"distance" : {
"text" : "15,7 km",
"value" : 15745
},
"duration" : {
"text" : "22 min",
"value" : 1322
},
"status" : "OK"
}
]
}
],
"status" : "OK"
}
What's going on?!
UPDATE: file_get_contents returns a string. So I decoded it into a PHP array but now the bot doesn't even answer!

Answer 1

$details = "http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/distancematrix/json?origins=Miami&destinations=Miami+Beach&mode=driving&sensor=false";
$json = file_get_contents($details);
$JsonObject = json_decode($json);
$distance = $JsonObject->rows[0]->elements[0]->distance->text;
$time = $JsonObject->rows[0]->elements[0]->duration->text;
$response = "You should be there in $time. Total distance you'll cover: $distance";
$chatId = "your telegram id here";
$botToken = "your bot token here";
file_get_contents("https://api.telegram.org/bot$botToken/sendMessage?chat_id=$chatId&text=$response");
This one works with file_get_contents.