How to extract data inside JSON response from Zoho CRM API - php

Question

I'm working with the Zoho CRM. The response format I get from their API seems a bit odd to me; I can't just pull an object from it like I would normally. I'm trying to parse the results using PHP. Here's an example of their response formatting:
{
"response": {
"result": {
"SalesOrders": {
"row": {
"FL": [
{
"content": "6666666000000000000",
"val": "SALESORDERID"
},
{
"content": "Order",
"val": "Subject"
},
{
"content": "Pending",
"val": "Status"
},
{
"content": "John Smith",
"val": "Order Owner"
},
{
"content": "Canada",
"val": "Billing Country"
},
{
"product": {
"FL": [
{
"content": "5555555000000000000",
"val": "Product Id"
},
{
"content": "Roller Coaster",
"val": "Product Name"
}
],
"no": "1"
},
"val": "Product Details"
},
"content": "Pending",
"val": "Ticket Status"
}
],
"no": "1"
}
}
},
"uri": "/crm/private/json/SalesOrders/getRecordById"
}
}
What I'm trying to do is get the Product ID of the Product (in this case the value is "5555555000000000000".
Every response has the same structure, but I can't use the index to parse out the key/value because the amount of fields could change between API calls (meaning the index of product could be 5, like above, or 7, or 8, or whatever depending on the amount of fields being pulled in). I don't understand why they didn't use typical key/value pairs, such as "Product_ID": "5555555000000000000" which would make all of this a non-issue.
Is there a way to do this without iterating through every key/value pair looking for a "val" of "Product ID" and then grabbing the associated "content" (which is the product id I'm looking for)? That's the only way I could think of and it doesn't seem very efficient.

Answer 1

PHP has a function for that: json_decode. See http://php.net/manual/en/function.json-decode.php
$response = "... your JSON response from wherever ...";
$data = json_decode($response, true);
// Access the nested arrays any way you need to, such as ...
$orders = $data["response"]["result"]["SalesOrders"];
foreach ($orders["row"]["FL"] as $item) {
if (array_key_exists("product", $item) {
echo $item["product"]["FL"][0]["content"];
}
}
EDIT: Corrected 2nd arg to json_decode (thanks Marcin)

Answer 2

I don't understand why they didn't use typical key/value pairs, such as "Product_ID": "5555555000000000000" which would make all of this a non-issue.
Yes, there could be a key=>value pair, but that would be to easy.
Because Zoho ... ;)
Is there a way to do this without iterating through every key/value pair looking for a "val" of "Product ID" and then grabbing the associated "content" (which is the product id I'm looking for)?
No, (even if you turn this into an array using json_decode($data, true) and go forward by using named keys) you end up iterating or testing for key existence (need to get to product-FL-val to get product-FL-content). Maybe array_fiter or array_walk with a callback come to rescue, but they also iterate internally.
My suggestion is to simply safe some time and use an existing package, e.g.
https://github.com/cristianpontes/zoho-crm-client-php
or search one on Packagist https://packagist.org/search/?q=zoho

Answer 3

I dont know this might help or not. But this is what i am using for my Zoho APP. Actually I am developing a PHP app using Zoho. Your JSON and mine is same but i am getting Deals and you are fetching SalesORders.
<?php
$token = $_SESSION['token'];
$url = "https://crm.zoho.com/crm/private/json/Deals/getRecordById?authtoken=$token&scope=crmapi&id=$dealID";
$result = file_get_contents($url);
$deal_detail = json_decode($result);
$deal_detail = json_decode(json_encode($deal_detail), True);
$deal_detail_array = array();
//Instead of Deals you have SalesOrder right
foreach($deal_detail['response']['result']['Deals']['row']['FL'] as $array){
$deal_detail_array[$array['val']] = $array['content'];
}
echo $deal_detail_array['DEALID']; // You can change this to SALEORDERID, get data correctly every time.
echo $deal_detail_array['Deal Name'];
echo $deal_detail_array['Amount'];
///.......and so on ..............//
//................................//
Only the difference between your JSON and mine is: You have "SalesOrders" in your JSON after result field and in my json instead of SalesOrders i have Deals there.
this code is working fine for me. SO you can do same thing except a field update. I am getting DEALID correctly for each request similarly you can get you SALESORDERID