Append JSON Data to JSON File Located on Server with PHP - php

Question

I have a JSON file stored on my server that I need to add data to. I have successfully retrieved the file into memory and have parsed it successfully. I am just having a hard time placing the new JSON data in the correct spot.
Here is the format of my JSON file:
{
"emails": [
{
"group": "1st Group",
"list": [
{
"id": 1,
"subject": "Testing 1"
},
{
"id": 2,
"subject": "Testing 2"
}
] // End list array
}, // End 1st Group
{
"group": "2nd Group",
"list": [
{
"id": 3,
"subject": "Testing 3"
},
{
"id": 4,
"subject": "Testing 4"
}
] // End list array
} // End 2nd Group
/* NEED TO INSERT NEW DATA HERE */
] // End emails array
}
I am trying to append a new group list after the last group list. In this example, that would be after this line: } // End 2nd Group.
Here is my PHP code which gets the JSON file from my server and parses it:
$getJSON = file_get_contents('emails.json');
$tempArray = json_decode($getJSON, true);
$numberOfGroups = count($tempArray['emails'][0]);
And here is my php code that creates the format/layout of my JSON file:
$groupArray = array();
$json = array( 'emails' => array() );
foreach ($contextIORequest->getData() as $message) {
$newTZ = new DateTimeZone("America/Chicago");
$currentTime = new DateTime();
$currentTime = DateTime::createFromFormat('U', $message['date_received']);
$currentTime->setTimezone($newTZ);
$formattedDateReceived = $currentTime->format('F j, Y');
if (!in_array($formattedDateReceived, $groupArray)) {
array_push( $json['emails'],
array(
'group' => $formattedDateReceived,
'list' => array()
)
);
$groupArray[] = $formattedDateReceived;
}
$body = str_replace(array("\r\n","\n"),"", $message['body'][0]['content']);
$newBody = preg_replace('!\s+!', ' ', $body);
array_push($json['emails'][array_search($formattedDateReceived,$groupArray)]['list'],
array(
'id' => $message['message_id'],
'subject'=> addslashes($message['subject']),
'to' => array("Me"),
'body' => $newBody,
'time' => $formattedDateReceived,
'datetime' => $formattedDateReceived,
'from' => $message['addresses']['from']['name'],
'dp' => "assets/img/profiles/avatar.jpg",
'dpRetina' => "assets/img/profiles/avatar2x.jpg"
)
);
} // end foreach loop
// Output the JSON
header('Content-Type: application/json');
echo json_encode($json);
So how would I go about appending a new group list after the last group list? And this needs to be done without actually included the emails array used to create the JSON.

Answer 1

After running json_decode on the serialized data (with the second param passed as true like you've done), you'll have, in PHP, an associative array which has one element at a key named emails. That element is an array and holds the group lists to which you want to add another. So it's a matter of:
$data = json_decode($getJSON, true);
$data['emails'][] = $TheNewGroupList;
Don't let the fact that it started as serialized data in JSON format get you frazzled. Once you've run json_decode it's just a PHP data structure (object or array), and operations on it are just like any other PHP data.