JSON to Array using PHP json_decode - php

Question

I'm reading a json file using
$jsonStr = file_get_contents("connection.json");
$jsonParsed = json_decode($jsonStr,true);
and I want $jsonParsed to be a associative array like this:
$jsonParsed = { "SERVER" => "111.222.333.444" , "USER" => "edvaldo" , "PASSWORD" => "my_password_here", "DATABASE" => "my_database_here" };
What is the format of the JSON needed to do this?
I tried this
{
"SERVER": "111.222.333.444",
"USER": "edvaldo",
"PASSWORD": "my_password_here",
"DATABASE": "my_database_here"
}
but even with JSONLint saying this piece og JSON is valid, I can't get the result I need.
I'm not really very used to JSON and then I will appreciate a lot any help given.
EDITED:
This is the function I'm using:
private function set_mysql_parameters() {
$this->connectionParams = array();
$json_file = $this->system_paths["JSONDATA"] . "connection.json";
$json_mysql = file_get_contents($json_file);
$json_parsed = json_decode($json_file,true,250);
foreach($json_parsed as $key => $value) {
$this->connectionParams[$key] = $value;
}
}
My goal is to fill this array $this->connectionParams with data extracted from the JSON file.

Answer 1

I notice that you are trying to decode the filename instead of the content.
$json_file = $this->system_paths["JSONDATA"] . "connection.json";
$json_parsed = json_decode($json_file,true,250);
Shouldn't it be
$json_parsed = json_decode($json_mysql, true, 250);