decoding stripe json with json_decode not working - php

Question

I have json from stripe and I am trying to decode it json_decode.
I am not getting an error. Just nothing is returning. I am getting the data back from stripe, I just cant decode it.
{
"created":1326853478,
"data":{
"object":{
"amount":4500,
"card":{
"country":"US",
"cvc_check":"pass",
"exp_month":7,
"exp_year":2014,
"fingerprint":"9aQtfsI8a17zjEZd",
"id":"cc_00000000000000",
"last4":"9782",
"object":"card",
"type":"Visa"
},
"created":1322700852,
"currency":"usd",
"disputed":false,
"fee":0,
"id":"ch_00000000000000",
"livemode":false,
"object":"charge",
"paid":true,
"refunded":true
}
},
"id":"evt_00000000000000",
"livemode":false,
"type":"charge.refunded"
}
// retrieve the request's body and parse it as JSON
$body = #file_get_contents('php://input');
$event_json = json_decode($body,true);
print_r($event_json);
Any ideas?

Answer 1

The php://input stream allows you to read raw data from the request body. This data will be a string and depending on what sort of values are in the request, will look something like:
"name=ok&submit=submit"
This is not JSON and therefore won't decode as JSON the way you expect.The json_decode() function returns null if it can't be decoded.
Where are you getting the JSON you posted above? That is the value you need to pass into json_decode().
If JSON is being passed in the request, like in the instance of callbacks, you would still need to parse that portion out to get just the JSON. If the php://input stream gives you name=ok&submit=submit&json={"created": 1326853478} then you'd have to parse it out. You can use this function from the PHP manual to seperate the values to work like the $_POST array:
<?php
// Function to fix up PHP's messing up POST input containing dots, etc.
function getRealPOST() {
$pairs = explode("&", file_get_contents("php://input"));
$vars = array();
foreach ($pairs as $pair) {
$nv = explode("=", $pair);
$name = urldecode($nv[0]);
$value = urldecode($nv[1]);
$vars[$name] = $value;
}
return $vars;
}
?>
To use it:
$post = getRealPOST();
$stripe_json = $post['json'];
$event_json = json_decode($stripe_json);

Answer 2

Here, I ran this:
<?php
$data = '{ "created": 1326853478, "data": { "object": { "amount": 4500, "card": { "country": "US", "cvc_check": "pass", "exp_month": 7, "exp_year": 2014, "fingerprint": "9aQtfsI8a17zjEZd", "id": "cc_00000000000000", "last4": "9782", "object": "card", "type": "Visa" }, "created": 1322700852, "currency": "usd", "disputed": false, "fee": 0, "id": "ch_00000000000000", "livemode": false, "object": "charge", "paid": true, "refunded": true } }, "id": "evt_00000000000000", "livemode": false, "type": "charge.refunded" }';
$arr = json_decode($data, true);
print_r($arr);
?>
And it worked. So, theoretically you should be able to use:
<?php
$arr = json_decode(file_get_contents('php://input'), true);
print_r($arr);
?>
As Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams said, don't use the '#' character because it obscures error messages and makes it harder to debug.
I would also check what version of PHP you have. json_decode() is only available on version 5.2.0 and later.