Can't get JSON string to parse into an array - php

Question

I'm using the following PHP code to return a json string:
$itemURL = 'http://***.***.***/search?tag=Football&affiliate_id=&max_results=3';
$response = file_get_contents($itemURL);//curl_exec($curlHandle);
echo $response;
$response = array($response);
echo $response[0];
I get a json string that looks something like this:
[
{
"ID": "123",
"Description": "Champion Football Navy T-shirt",
"HighPrice": 16.99,
"LowPrice": 16.99,
"SalePrice": null,
"OnSale": false,
"URL": "http://www.mystore.com/itemDescription",
"ImageURL": "http://www.mystore.com/mainstore/045.jpg",
"LargeImageURL": "http://www.mystore.com/mainstore/045.jpg",
"ThumbnailImageURL": "http://www.mystore.com/mainstore/045.jpg",
"MiniImageURL": "http://www.mystore.com/mainstore/045.jpg",
"AffiliateID": ""
},
{
"ID": "23",
"Description": "Champion Football Navy T-shirt XL",
"HighPrice": 16.99,
"LowPrice": 16.99,
"SalePrice": null,
"OnSale": false,
"URL": "http://www.mystore.com/itemDescription",
"ImageURL": "http://www.mystore.com/mainstore/045.jpg",
"LargeImageURL": "http://www.mystore.com/mainstore/045.jpg",
"ThumbnailImageURL": "http://www.mystore.com/mainstore/045.jpg",
"MiniImageURL": "http://www.mystore.com/mainstore/045.jpg",
"AffiliateID": ""
}
]
However when I echo $response[0] I get the entire string. If I use json_decode or encode I get a string but with quotes around it. I can't figure out how to cast this dang thing so it operates as an array of objects that I can then iterate through. Thanks for any help in advance

Answer 1

Try this...
$itemURL = 'http://***.***.***/search?tag=Football&affiliate_id=&max_results=3';
$response = file_get_contents($itemURL);//curl_exec($curlHandle);
$response = json_decode($response);
You'll get an object like...
array(2) {
[0]=>
object(stdClass)#1 (12) {
["ID"]=>
string(3) "123"
["Description"]=>
string(30) "Champion Football Navy T-shirt"
["HighPrice"]=>
float(16.99)
["LowPrice"]=>
float(16.99)
["SalePrice"]=>
NULL
["OnSale"]=>
bool(false)
["URL"]=>
string(38) "http://www.mystore.com/itemDescription"
["ImageURL"]=>
string(40) "http://www.mystore.com/mainstore/045.jpg"
["LargeImageURL"]=>
string(40) "http://www.mystore.com/mainstore/045.jpg"
["ThumbnailImageURL"]=>
string(40) "http://www.mystore.com/mainstore/045.jpg"
["MiniImageURL"]=>
string(40) "http://www.mystore.com/mainstore/045.jpg"
["AffiliateID"]=>
string(0) ""
}
[1]=>
object(stdClass)#2 (12) {
["ID"]=>
string(2) "23"
["Description"]=>
string(33) "Champion Football Navy T-shirt XL"
["HighPrice"]=>
float(16.99)
["LowPrice"]=>
float(16.99)
["SalePrice"]=>
NULL
["OnSale"]=>
bool(false)
["URL"]=>
string(38) "http://www.mystore.com/itemDescription"
["ImageURL"]=>
string(40) "http://www.mystore.com/mainstore/045.jpg"
["LargeImageURL"]=>
string(40) "http://www.mystore.com/mainstore/045.jpg"
["ThumbnailImageURL"]=>
string(40) "http://www.mystore.com/mainstore/045.jpg"
["MiniImageURL"]=>
string(40) "http://www.mystore.com/mainstore/045.jpg"
["AffiliateID"]=>
string(0) ""
}
}
And then you can access your JSON objects using $response[0], $response[1], etc... Using the specific name of the field like $response[0]->AffiliateID for istance.

Answer 2

you need to call the property you are looking for
IE:
echo response[0].ID; //getting the 1st item in the response array then access the "ID" property of the json object.
The json response is a dynamic object that allows you to interact with all the properties as though you created the object from scratch.
The values inside the [{... and the ... }] are the object values.
so...
var json = '{"ID" : 1, "Prop1" : "Value1", Prop2 : "Value2" }';
can be parsed using jQuery's parseJSON method
var obj= jQuery.parseJSON(json);
echo obj.ID; //1
echo obj.Prop1; //Value
echo obj.Prop2; //Value2
When you have the [... and ...] around the { and } you know this object is an array and needs to be treated accordingly.
Hope this helps.
wm

Answer 3

if (mysql_num_rows($result) > 0) {
$response["events"] = array();
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
$tmparr = array();
$tmparr["uid"] = $row["uid"];
$tmparr["date"] = $row["date"];
$tmparr["hours"] = $row["hours"];
$tmparr["store_name"] = $row["store_name"];
$tmparr["event_information"] = $row["event_information"];
$tmparr["event_type"] = $row["event_type"];
$tmparr["Phone"] = $row["Phone"];
$tmparr["price"] = $row["price"];
$tmparr["address"] = $row["address"];
$tmparr["image_url"] = $row["image_url"];
$tmparr["created_at"] = $row["created_at"];
$tmparr["updated_at"] = $row["updated_at"];
array_push($response["events"], $tmparr);
}
$response["success"] = 1;
echo json_encode($response);
I can't understand what you are trying to do but This is the way that i use in order to return an array of rows of data from a sql query ($result). I hope this helps you