extracting field from twitter feed using json_decode - php

Question

I am trying to grab my twitter feed using the following code:
// Make the request and get the response into the $json variable
$json = $twitter->setGetfield($getfield)
->buildOauth($url, $requestMethod)
->performRequest();
// It's json, so decode it into an array
$result = json_decode($json);
// Access the profile_image_url element in the array
echo $result->created_at;
?>
I get the result of:
Thu Oct 25 18:40:50 +0000 2012
If I try to get the text with:
echo $result->text;
I get this error:
Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$text in /Library/WebServer/Documents/include/twitter_noformat/items.php on line 35
A partial var_dump of my data format includes this:
{"created_at":"Thu Aug 01 16:12:18 +0000 2013",
"id":362969042497175553,
"id_str":"362969042497175553",
"text":"A warm welcome to our new international students from China, Hong Kong and Germany! http:\/\/t.co\/GLvt3GynJV",
"source":"web",
"truncated":false,"in_reply_to_status_id":null,"in_reply_to_status_id_str":null,"in_reply_to_user_id":null,"in_reply_to_user_id_str":null,"in_reply_to_screen_name":null,"user":
My question is:
created_at gives me a value. id gives me a value. Why doesn't text? I know nothing about JSON btw. I'm not a very advanced programmer, but the pattern looks the same to me.
Edit: Well I found a cool snippet that converted my twitter array to something more readable. The function goes like this:
// It's json, so decode it into an array
$result = json_decode($json);
// Access the profile_image_url element in the array
$pretty = function($v='',$c=" ",$in=-1,$k=null)use(&$pretty){$r='';if(in_array(gettype($v),array('object','array'))){$r.=($in!=-1?str_repeat($c,$in):'').(is_null($k)?'':"$k: ").'<br>';foreach($v as $sk=>$vl){$r.=$pretty($vl,$c,$in+1,$sk).'<br>';}}else{$r.=($in!=-1?str_repeat($c,$in):'').(is_null($k)?'':"$k: ").(is_null($v)?'<NULL>':"<strong>$v</strong>");}return$r;};
echo $pretty($result);
The results now look like this:
statuses_count: 583
lang: en
status:
created_at: Thu Aug 01 21:10:10 +0000 2013
id: 363044004444651522
id_str: 363044004444651522
text: #CalStateEastBay AD Sara Lillevand Judd '86 honored for her work as an athletic adminstrator. http://t.co/WzOqjIDrBw
This is strange because that makes text look like it's part of an object?
I have determined that twitter kicks back an array of objects. Those objects can have a lot of items(?) As I mentioned previously though I can echo $result->created_at; but not text. They are both at the same level of the array.
thanks in advance for your help,
Donovan

Answer 1

Alright here was my solution after a day of research:
$result = json_decode( $json );
echo "Text:" . $result->status->text . "<br />";
Text was a child(?) of status. I could echo created_at because it was used at two levels of the array, which I hadn't seen before. Text was inside the status object I guess.
created_at: Thu Oct 25 18:40:50 +0000 2012
favourites_count: 1
utc_offset: -25200
time_zone: Pacific Time (US & Canada)
geo_enabled: 1
verified:
statuses_count: 583
lang: en
status:
created_at: Thu Aug 01 21:10:10 +0000 2013
id: 363044004444651522
id_str: 363044004444651522
text: #CalStateEastBay AD Sara Lillevand Judd '86 honored for her work as an athletic adminstrator. http://t.co/WzOqjIDrBw