How to get access the properties in this json response? - php

Question

I am executing a curl request and get a response which returns a json response. Below is the code after the response is sent back.
Response: "Zeros Replaced real token"
{"success":true,"result":{"token":"000000000","serverTime":1471365111,"expireTime":1471365411}}1
Code Used (For Testing) and accessing property:
$json = json_decode($result);
print_r($json); // Prints the Json Response
$firsttry = $json->result['token']; //Access Property results in error :Trying to get property of non-object
$secondtry = $json['token'];
echo $firsttry.'<br>';//Code can't continue because of error from $firsttry.
print_r( $secondtry.'<br>');//Nothing Prints at all
I did notice a weird anomaly where it prints a 1 at the end, where as if i do
json_encode($json);
The return response replaces the one at the end of the string with a "true"
Could the "1 or true" at the end be throwing of the json decode?
Maybe I am missing something simple?
As Requested full test code
$url = "https://website.com/restapi.php";
//username of the user who is to logged in.
$userName="adminuser"; //not real user
$fields_string; //global var
$fields = array( //array will have more in the future
'username' => urlencode($userName)
);
//url-ify the data for the POST
foreach($fields as $key=>$value) { global $fields_string;
$fields_string .= $key.'='.$value.'&'; }
rtrim($fields_string, '&');
//open connection
$ch = curl_init();
//set the url, number of POST vars, POST data
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL, $url.'?'.$fields_string.'operation=getchallenge');
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST, count($fields));
//execute post
$result = curl_exec($ch);
//close connection
curl_close($ch);

Answer 1

json_decode(), by default makes child objects into stdClass objects rather than arrays unless they are explicitly arrays.
Try something like:
$firsttry = $json->result->token;

Answer 2

The var_dump shows you the data type. Since result itself is an object, access its token with -> rather than []
$response = '{"success":true...}'
$json = json_decode($response); //var_dumping this will show you it's an object
echo $json->result->token; // 000000000

Answer 3

I figured out the issue. In the Curl Options I did not have
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
Once i put this in #GentelmanMax solution worked for me, but the issue was in the curl response responding directly, where as the return transfer sends back a string that php can work with, which then allowed json_decode()to function as is should. I knew it was something simple.