working with JSON in php - php

Question

I have a problem echo'ing data from a JSON file:
<?php
$url = file_get_contents("http://api.erpk.org/citizen/profile/3121752.json?key=Yn3AsG80");
$json = file_get_contents($url);
$data = json_decode($json, true);
echo "<pre>"; var_dump($data); echo"</pre>";
?>
the above is my php file i am using which outputs the JSON as shown below:
{
"id": 3121752,
"name": "SnowderBlazer",
"birth": "2010-04-10",
"avatar": "http://static.erepublik.net/uploads/avatars/Citizens/2010/04/10/4bb9a72cc291faaaf7af8e78ed0a8509_100x100.jpg",
"online": false,
"ban": null,
"alive": true,
"level": 97,
"experience": 360391,
"strength": 42859.62,
"rank": {
"points": 437120237,
"level": 64,
"image": "http://www.erepublik.com/images/modules/ranks/god_of_war_2.png",
"name": "God of War**"
},
"elite_citizen": false,
"national_rank": 1,
"residence": {
"country": {
"id": 65,
"name": "Serbia",
"code": "RS"
},
"region": {
"id": 198,
"name": "Midi-Pyrenees"
}
},
"citizenship": {
"id": 65,
"name": "Serbia",
"code": "RS"
},
"about": "Voters Club Moderator\ncatch me on #voters #Rizon\nIRC Nick : Snowderblazer OR Snowderblazer[BNC]\norder herehttp://erepublik-market.com/voters/newOrder.html?adp=1549866\n[ident:9vrwQZB9]",
"party": {
"id": 2479,
"name": "Ujedinjena eSrbija",
"role": "Party Member"
},
"army": {
"id": 1980,
"name": "Legija Stranaca Elite",
"role": "Commander",
"created_at": "2012-05-26",
"avatar": "http://static.erepublik.net/uploads/avatars/Groups/2012/05/26/f80bf05527157a8c2a7bb63b22f49aaa_medium.jpg",
"rank": "Commander"
},
"newspaper": {
"id": 241367,
"role": "Press director",
"name": "M.A.D.S News"
},
"top_damage": {
"damage": 215238312,
"date": "2013-05-16",
"message": "Achieved while successfully defending Basilicata against Italy on day 2,004"
},
"true_patriot": {
"damage": 3021790429,
"since": "2012-04-26"
},
"medals": {
"battle_hero": 248,
"campaign_hero": 98,
"congress_member": 9,
"country_president": 0,
"hard_worker": 36,
"media_mogul": 5,
"mercenary": 1,
"resistance_hero": 2,
"society_builder": 0,
"super_soldier": 171,
"top_fighter": 3,
"true_patriot": 43
},
"hit": 14924
}
my problem is just that it loads all data at once, and i only want to echo each
i have no experience with JSON so i don't knwo the variables to echo
the via the JSON you can visit
JSON Version : http://api.erpk.org/citizen/profile/3121752.json?key=Yn3AsG80
XML Version : http://api.erpk.org/citizen/profile/3121752.xml?key=Yn3AsG80
What I want to achieve is the following:
Load the JSON or XML without the output so that I can use the ECHO to put he data where i want it to show in the PHP file;
ECHO each of the JSON or XML data.
Everytime I try I get an error that says its a non-object

Answer 1

json_decode($json, true) returns a plain array, it's not specific to json and you can access its elements just like an other array:
$data = json_decode($json, true);
var_dump($data['name']);
If you want to get objects instead, remove the second argument:
$data = json_decode($json);
var_dump($data->name);

Answer 2

You're misusing file_get_contents, so I'm guessing that's your problem. To fetch data from that URL just your first line with this one:
$url = 'http://api.erpk.org/citizen/profile/3121752.json?key=Yn3AsG80';
Anyway, here's a code snippet to echo a short profile given your JSON dataset.
It shows you how to access 1st level fields like name and birth, 2nd level as rank\level and rank\name and finally a dynamic set of fields like medals.
<?php
$json = '{"id":3121752,"name":"SnowderBlazer","birth":"2010-04-10","avatar":"http://static.erepublik.net/uploads/avatars/Citizens/2010/04/10/4bb9a72cc291faaaf7af8e78ed0a8509_100x100.jpg","online":false,"ban":null,"alive":true,"level":97,"experience":360391,"strength":42859.62,"rank":{"points":437120237,"level":64,"image":"http://www.erepublik.com/images/modules/ranks/god_of_war_2.png","name":"God of War**"},"elite_citizen":false,"national_rank":1,"residence":{"country":{"id":65,"name":"Serbia","code":"RS"},"region":{"id":198,"name":"Midi-Pyrenees"}},"citizenship":{"id":65,"name":"Serbia","code":"RS"},"about":"Voters Club Moderator\ncatch me on #voters #Rizon\nIRC Nick : Snowderblazer OR Snowderblazer[BNC]\norder herehttp://erepublik-market.com/voters/newOrder.html?adp=1549866\n[ident:9vrwQZB9]","party":{"id":2479,"name":"Ujedinjena eSrbija","role":"Party Member"},"army":{"id":1980,"name":"Legija Stranaca Elite","role":"Commander","created_at":"2012-05-26","avatar":"http://static.erepublik.net/uploads/avatars/Groups/2012/05/26/f80bf05527157a8c2a7bb63b22f49aaa_medium.jpg","rank":"Commander"},"newspaper":{"id":241367,"role":"Press director","name":"M.A.D.S News"},"top_damage":{"damage":215238312,"date":"2013-05-16","message":"Achieved while successfully defending Basilicata against Italy on day 2,004"},"true_patriot":{"damage":3021790429,"since":"2012-04-26"},"medals":{"battle_hero":248,"campaign_hero":98,"congress_member":9,"country_president":0,"hard_worker":36,"media_mogul":5,"mercenary":1,"resistance_hero":2,"society_builder":0,"super_soldier":171,"top_fighter":3,"true_patriot":43},"hit":14924}';
$data = json_decode($json, true);
echo "Name: {$data['name']}\n";
echo "Date of birth: {$data['birth']}\n\n";
echo "Level: {$data['rank']['level']}\n";
echo "Rank: {$data['rank']['name']}\n\n";
echo "Medals\n";
foreach ($data['medals'] as $medalName => $number) {
echo ucfirst(str_replace('_', ' ', $medalName)) . ": {$number}\n";
}
Output
Name: SnowderBlazer
Date of birth: 2010-04-10
Level: 64
Rank: God of War**
Medals
Battle hero: 248
Campaign hero: 98
Congress member: 9
Country president: 0
Hard worker: 36
Media mogul: 5
Mercenary: 1
Resistance hero: 2
Society builder: 0
Super soldier: 171
Top fighter: 3
True patriot: 43