FullCalendar, JSON array empty but working on PHP file - php

Question

I am configuring FullCalendar with a MySQL DB, using PHP to process and return a JSON.
db-connect.php - fetches results from my Db and encodes to JSON.
get-events.php - reads JSON, converts to FullCalendar
json.html - is my front-end calendar view
File contents below, but before reading: db-connect.php successfully outputs JSON that I have verified on JSONLint.
[{"title":"Test new calendar","start":"2015-07-21","end":"2015-07-22"}]
get-events.php is successfully 'reading' db-connect.php as the "php/get-events.php must be running." error message on my front-end view has disappeared (shows if for example it can't establish that db-connect.php is in the directory, or spelling error in file name, etc).
However when I either pass the query via params or check in Firebug console, the JSON array is empty.
/cal/demos/php/get-events.php?start=2015-07-01&end=2015-07-31
returns [] whereas my test calendar entry does fall within these parameters.
I'm convinced it's my db-connect.php that is the error, but I'm scratching my head about it. Relative newbie so I'm sure it's obvious!
db-connect.php
<?php
$db = mysql_connect("localhost:3306","root","");
if (!$db) {
die('Could not connect to db: ' . mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db("test",$db);
$result = mysql_query("select * from cal", $db);
$json_response = array();
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {
$row_array['id'] = $row['id'];
$row_array['title'] = $row['title'];
$row_array['start'] = $row['start'];
$row_array['end'] = $row['end'];
array_push($json_response,$row_array);
}
echo json_encode($json_response);
mysql_close($db);
?>
get-events.php
<?php
// Require our Event class and datetime utilities
require dirname(__FILE__) . '/utils.php';
if (!isset($_GET['start']) || !isset($_GET['end'])) {
die("Please provide a date range.");
}
$range_start = parseDateTime($_GET['start']);
$range_end = parseDateTime($_GET['end']);
$timezone = null;
if (isset($_GET['timezone'])) {
$timezone = new DateTimeZone($_GET['timezone']);
}
$json = file_get_contents(dirname(__FILE__) . '/db-connect.php');
$input_arrays = json_decode($json, true);
$output_arrays = array();
if (is_array($input_arrays) || is_object($input_arrays))
{
foreach ($input_arrays as $array) {
$event = new Event($array, $timezone);
if ($event->isWithinDayRange($range_start, $range_end)) {
$output_arrays[] = $event->toArray();
}
}
}
echo json_encode($output_arrays);

Answer 1

file_get_contentsdoesn't parse the php file. It will output the programmcode in this case. Add this function to your get-events.php
function loadPhpFile($file) {
ob_start();
include $file;
$content = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
return $content;
}
And then replace
$json = file_get_contents(dirname(__FILE__) . '/db-connect.php');
with
$json = loadPhpFile(dirname(__FILE__) . '/db-connect.php');
And as a hint: Please use objects (OOP) and mysqli. PHP Mysqli