Edit a Json File - php

Question

I am trying to use a jQuery gantt as a wordpress plugin. Currently I'm stuck on editing the data.json. I use a php form to populate a new item. When submitting the form, it will add data to the file, but behind the closing square brackets.
[{
...
},
{ "name" : "Vermessung"
, "desc" : ""
, "values": [
{ "id" : "5"
, "from" : "/Date(1363132800000)/"
, "to" : "/Date(1368655200000)/"
, "desc" : "Vom Beauftragen der Vermessung bis zur tatsächlichen Vermessung"
, "customClass": "ganttBlue"
, "label" : "Vermessung"
}
]
}
]
After submitting the form it looks like this:
[{
...
},
{ "name" : "Vermessung"
, "desc" : ""
, "values": [
{ "id" : "5"
, "from" : "/Date(1363132800000)/"
, "to" : "/Date(1368655200000)/"
, "desc" : "Vom Beauftragen der Vermessung bis zur tatsächlichen Vermessung"
, "customClass": "ganttBlue"
, "label" : "Vermessung"
}
]
}
]{"name":null,"desc":null,"values":{"id":null,"from":null,"to":null,"desc":null,"customClass":null,"label":null}}
This is the requested php Code which will adding stuff to the json:
$file = jQg_BASENAME_DIR.'/inc/data.json';
log_me('This is a message for debugging purposes');
if(isset($_POST['submit'])){
$json = file_get_contents( $file );
$data = json_decode($json);
// convert form data to json format
$postArray = array(
"name" => $_POST['name'],
"desc" => $_POST['desc'],
"values" => array(
"id" => $_POST["value_id"],
"from" => $_POST['value_from'],
"to" => $_POST['value_to'],
"desc" => $_POST['value_desc'],
"customClass" => $_POST['value_class'],
"label" => $_POST['value_label']
)
); //you might need to process any other post fields you have..
$json = json_encode( $postArray );
array_push($json, $postArray);
// write to file
file_put_contents( $file, $json, FILE_APPEND);
I also can't establish the square bracket after value. How can I fix this?

Answer 1

As I said in my comment
$json = file_get_contents( $file );
// $json is now a string
$data = json_decode($json);
// $data is a PHP object
// So lets call the second array $data->someArray
// since I do not know what it is called looking at your file
// convert form data to PHP array format
$postArray = array(
"name" => $_POST['name'],
"desc" => $_POST['desc'],
"values" => array(
"id" => $_POST["value_id"],
"from" => $_POST['value_from'],
"to" => $_POST['value_to'],
"desc" => $_POST['value_desc'],
"customClass" => $_POST['value_class'],
"label" => $_POST['value_label']
)
); //you might need to process any other post fields you have..
// $postArray is a PHP object
// $json = json_encode( $postArray ); // do NOT convert here
array_push($data->someArray, $postArray);
$json = json_encode($data);
// write to file
file_put_contents( $file, $json, FILE_APPEND);

Answer 2

Your values field is an array of objects instead of an object (the encoding of a php associative array is a json oject). So for values to have square brackets instead of "values" => array() you would need "values" => array( array("id" => ... etc. ) )
As for your first problem you've inverted the json_encoding. First push your postArray into data, then json_encode data.