learning getjson - php

Question

I'm trying to get a grasp on using $.getJSON with an array from PHP.
Here's a simple example where all I want to do is output the requested info. Should the alert(data) return the array object? I am not alerting anything.
PHP file (account.php):
$arr = array('items' => 5,'others' => 6);
echo $arr = json_encode($arr)
HTML file:
$("#unsubscribe").click(function() {
$.getJSON("account.php?", function(data) {
alert(data);
});
});

Answer 1

First of all, it's probably a good idea if you try to load account.php in your browser. You should expect to see:
{"items":5,"others":6}
However, you won't see this. You will instead see a Parse Error, expected ;. Because you forgot it on the echo line.
This is why you see no alert. A PHP error is clearly not valid JSON, and viewing the browser's error console would tell you this ;)

Answer 2

In my projects I am using dump function for viewing json returned array.
Here it is:
function dump(arr,level) {
var dumped_text = "";
if(!level) level = 0;
//The padding given at the beginning of the line.
var level_padding = "";
for(var j=0;j<level+1;j++) level_padding += " ";
if(typeof(arr) == 'object') { //Array/Hashes/Objects
for(var item in arr) {
var value = arr[item];
if(typeof(value) == 'object') { //If it is an array,
dumped_text += level_padding + "'" + item + "'"+"\\n";
if (level < 0)
dumped_text += dump(value,level+1);
} else {
dumped_text += level_padding + "'" + item + "' => '" + value + "'"+"\\n";
}
}
} else { //Stings/Chars/Numbers etc.
dumped_text = "===>"+arr+"<===("+typeof(arr)+")";
}
return dumped_text;
}