Need to keep backslashes in JSON feed when parsing in PHP - php

Question

here is an example of one of our JSON feeds:
{"wiggins": {
"id": "bkstir-04380-wdr-q",
"alertcolour": "yellow",
"infohvr": "",
"infoclk": "",
"warning": "10",
"warnhvr": "There are 10 files stuck in \\server.domain.co.uk\Country\Dept\Output",
"warnclk": "\\server.domain.co.uk\Country\Dept\Output",
"process": "abc-app-015 Spooler",
"processhvr": "",
"processclk": "http://xyz-abc-001.svr.domain.co.uk/monitors/39.html"
}}
the backslashes are stopping the php from displaying it, if I have a JSON without any backslashes in it then they display fine, however I need the slashes in there as the person displaying the page needs to go to the link. To get it working for now I've also tried stipslashes() but it doesn't work. Can anyone offer any advise? thanks. This is the code parsing the files (as I say, this bit works as long as there are no backslashes):
$path = "../../Admins/VBScript/Monitors/JSON/"; //where JSONs are stored
foreach (glob($path."*.json") as $file){ //loop through each file
$json = file_get_contents($file); //get JSON files
$data = json_decode($json, true); //parse the file
The JSON files come back as valid on sites I've tested them on.

Answer 1

Your JSON is not valid. Backslashes have to be escaped like this:
{"wiggins": {
"id": "bkstir-04380-wdr-q",
"alertcolour": "yellow",
"infohvr": "",
"infoclk": "",
"warning": "10",
"warnhvr": "There are 10 files stuck in \\\\server.domain.co.uk\\Country\\Dept\\Output",
"warnclk": "\\\\server.domain.co.uk\\Country\\Dept\\Output",
"process": "abc-app-015 Spooler",
"processhvr": "",
"processclk": "http://xyz-abc-001.svr.domain.co.uk/monitors/39.html"
}}
According to this question you could use
$json = str_replace('\\', '\\\\', $json);
to fix your JSON.

Answer 2

Your JSON data is not considered valid JSON according to the standards in place. Using JSONLint your data throws parser errors until all slashes are escaped. You can read this standard here: JSON Data Standard The information above is on page 4 and requires forward and backward solidus characters to be escaped. JSON_ENCODE() and JSON_DECODE() will take care of the removal of the escapes as well so your formatting for an HTML link should be valid.