make php variable from plain text get file - php

Question

currently i am using the below code to get a file from a site which tells me the current server status of a game server. the file is in plain text format and out puts the following depending on server status:
ouput:
{ "state": "online", "numonline": "185" }
or
{ "state": "offline" }
or
{ "state": "error" }
file get code:
<?php
$value=file_get_contents('http:/example.com/server_state.aspx');
echo $value;
?>
I would like to turn the 'state' and 'numonline' into their own variables so i could output them using a if, like:
<?php
$content=file_get_contents('http://example.com/server_state.aspx');
$state <--- what i dont know how to make
$online <--- what i dont know how to make
if ($state == online) {
echo "Server: $state , Online: $online";
} else {
echo "Server: Offline";
)
?>
but i have no idea how to turn the 'state' and 'numonline' from the plain text into a variable of their own ($state and $online), how would i go about doing this?

Answer 1

Your data is JSON. Use json_decode to parse it into a usable form:
$data = json_decode(file_get_contents('http:/example.com/server_state.aspx'));
if (!$data) {
die("Something went wrong when reading or parsing the data");
}
switch ($data->state) {
case 'online':
// e.g. echo $data->numonline
case 'offline':
// ...
}

Answer 2

Use json_decode function:
$value = '{ "state": "online", "numonline": "185" }';
$json = json_decode($value, true);
print_r($json);
if ($json['state'] == 'online') {
echo "Server: " . $json['state'] . " , Online: " . $json['numonline'];
} else {
echo "Server: Offline";
}
Output:
Array
(
[state] => online
[numonline] => 185
)

Answer 3

I would like to turn the 'state' and 'numonline' into their own variables:
Maybe you are looking for extract,
Example:
$value = '{ "state": "online", "numonline": "185" }';
$json = json_decode($value, true);
extract($json);
//now $state is 'online' and $numonline is 185