How to return only JSON from Zend - php

Question

I'm using Zend Framework 1.x for my project. I want to create a Web service return only JSON string for the caller function. I tried to use Zend_Controller_Action and applied those ways:
1.
$this->getResponse()
->setHeader('Content-type', 'text/plain')
->setBody(json_encode($arrResult));
2.
$this->_helper->getHelper('contextSwitch')
->addActionContext('nctpaymenthandler', 'json')
->initContext();
3.
header('Content-type: application/json');
4.
$this->_response->setHeader('Content-type', 'application/json');
5.
echo Zend_Json::encode($arrResult);
exit;
6.
return json_encode($arrResult);
7.
$this->view->_response = $arrResult;
But when I used cURL to get result, it returned with JSON string surrounded by some HTML tags. Then I tried to user Zend_Rest_Controller with the options above. It still did not success.
P.S.: Most of those ways above are from the question which had been asked on Stack Overflow.

Answer 1

I Like this way!
//encode your data into JSON and send the response
$this->_helper->json($myArrayofData);
//nothing else will get executed after the line above

Answer 2

You need to disable the layout and view rendering.
Explicit disable layout and view renderer:
public function getJsonResponseAction()
{
$this->getHelper('Layout')
->disableLayout();
$this->getHelper('ViewRenderer')
->setNoRender();
$this->getResponse()
->setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json');
// should the content type should be UTF-8?
// $this->getResponse()
// ->setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json; charset=UTF-8');
// ECHO JSON HERE
return;
}
If your using the json controller action helper you need to add a json context to the action. In this case the json helper will disable the layout and view renderer for you.
public function init()
{
$this->_helper->contextSwitch()
->addActionContext('getJsonResponse', array('json'))
->initContext();
}
public function getJsonResponseAction()
{
$jsonData = ''; // your json response
return $this->_helper->json->sendJson($jsonData);
}

Answer 3

Your code would need to disable the layout as well in order to stop the content being wrapped with the standard page template. But a much easier approach would just be:
$this->getHelper('json')->sendJson($arrResult);
the JSON helper will encode your variable as JSON, set the appropriate headers and disable the layout and view script for you.

Answer 4

It is much easier.
public function init()
{
parent::init();
$this->_helper->contextSwitch()
->addActionContext('foo', 'json')
->initContext('json');
}
public function fooAction()
{
$this->view->foo = 'bar';
}