Parsing JSON Results with PHP - Yahoo Search API - php

Question

I am able to retrieve results from yahoo with my API key, using the instructions found on the yahoo developers website. http://developer.yahoo.com/boss/search/boss_api_guide/codeexamples.html#
Code:
if ($_POST['query'])
{
$newline="<br />";
$query = urlencode("'{$_POST['query']}'");
require("OAuth.php");
$cc_key = "key goes here";
$cc_secret = "secret goes here";
$url = "http://yboss.yahooapis.com/ysearch/web";
$args = array();
$args["q"] = "$query";
$args["format"] = "json";
$consumer = new OAuthConsumer($cc_key, $cc_secret);
$request = OAuthRequest::from_consumer_and_token($consumer, NULL,"GET", $url, $args);
$request->sign_request(new OAuthSignatureMethod_HMAC_SHA1(), $consumer, NULL);
$url = sprintf("%s?%s", $url, OAuthUtil::build_http_query($args));
$ch = curl_init();
$headers = array($request->to_header());
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
$rsp = curl_exec($ch);
$results = json_decode($rsp);
print_r($results);
}
Using print_r($results) as shown above, I get results, such as the following (extract of first three results shown from searching for "elephant"):
PLEASE NOTE I HAVE CHANGED THE URLS TO "WWW" AS I REQUIRE AT LEAST 10 REPUTATION TO POST MORE THAN 2 LINKS.
stdClass Object ( [bossresponse] => stdClass Object ( [responsecode]
=> 200 [web] => stdClass Object ( [start] => 0 [count] => 50 [totalresults] => 36800000 [results] => Array ( [0] => stdClass Object
( [date] => [clickurl] => WWW [url]
=> WWW [dispurl] => en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant [title] => Elephant - Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia [abstract] => Elephant trunks have multiple
functions, including breathing, olfaction, ... One elephant has been
observed to graze by kneeling on its front legs, ... ) [1] => stdClass
Object ( [date] => [clickurl] =>
WWW [url] =>
WWW [dispurl] =>
www.defenders.org/elephant/basic-facts [title] => Elephant | Basic
Facts About Elephants | Defenders of Wildlife [abstract] => Elephant.
Basic Facts About Elephants More on Elephant: Threats to Elephants »
More on Elephant: Basic Facts . Threats. What Defenders Is Doing to
Help. What You Can ... ) [2] => stdClass Object ( [date] => [clickurl]
=> WWW
[url] =>
WWW
[dispurl] => kids.nationalgeographic.com/.../african-elephant [title]
=> African Elephant Facts and Pictures -- National Geographic Kids [abstract] => Kids' feature about elephants, with photographs, video,
audio, fun facts, an e-mail postcard, and links to other animals. )
[3] => stdClass Object ( [date] => [clickurl] =>
WWW [url]
=> WWW [dispurl] => elephant.elehost.com/About_Elephants/about_elephants.htm
[title] => About Elephants [abstract] => All about elephants on the
Elephant Information Repository! This page includes a summary of
elephant related facts to get you inducted in to the world of
elephants. )
I have attempted to output the results, in a legible format, as follows:
Code Attempt 1:
foreach ($results->{ 'results' } as $item )
{
echo "<font color ='blue'>{$item->{ 'title' }}</font>".": "."$newline"."$newline".$item->{ 'abstract' }."\n\n";
}
I also tried the following, without success:
Code Attempt 2:
echo $results['results']['url'];
echo $results['results']['title'];
echo $results['results']['abstract'];
Any ideas on what to do?
Thanks.

Answer 1

I've noticed you just copy-pasted the code from the documentation's code examples, but never mind that.
You're accessing the results array the wrong way:
foreach ($results->bossresponse->web->results as $result)
{
//do stuff
echo $result->title.'<br/>';
}
Or, as cptnk suggested:
$results = json_decode($rsp, true);
//force to assoc-array, which will allow array-access
foreach($results['bossresponse']['web']['results'] as $result)
{
//$result is array here, but do the same stuff
echo $result['title'].'<br/>';
}
Or, combine the two
foreach($results->bossresponse->web->results as $result)
{
$result = (array) $result;//casts stdClass to array
printf('%s<br/>', $result['url'], $result['title']);
}