Having trouble parsing Json with PHP - php

Question

I have an android app that sends a json string to my server and it is formatted as follows:
{"drink_name":"testing","phone_number":"5555555555"}
When I use the command: SELECT * FROM orders, it shows that blank entries were inserted into the table.
I think my issue is arising from my PHP script (mainly because I am new to PHP).
Am I parsing the json correctly?
Below is the script that I wrote.
<?php
$handle = mysql_connect('localhost',USERNAME,PASSWORD);
if($handle==false)
{
die('No database connection');
}
$db=mysql_select_db('r2bar2');
$json = file_get_contents('php://input');
$obj = json_decode($json);
mysql_query("INSERT INTO orders (phone_number, drink_name)
VALUES ('".$obj->{'phone_number'}."', '".$obj->{'drink_name'}."')");
mysql_close($handle);
?>
EDIT:
Here is my Android code if it is any help.
protected void sendJson(final String phnNmbr, final String drink) {
Thread t = new Thread(){
public void run() {
Looper.prepare(); //For Preparing Message Pool for the child Thread
HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
HttpConnectionParams.setConnectionTimeout(client.getParams(), 10000); //Timeout Limit
HttpResponse response;
JSONObject json = new JSONObject();
try{
HttpPost post = new HttpPost("http://kubie.dyndns-home.com/R2Bar2/sendOrder.php");
json.put("phone_number", phnNmbr);
json.put("drink_name", drink);
StringEntity se = new StringEntity( "orders: " + json.toString());
se.setContentEncoding(new BasicHeader(HTTP.CONTENT_TYPE, "application/json"));
post.setEntity(se);
response = client.execute(post);
/*Checking response */
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), json.toString(), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
if(response!=null){
InputStream in = response.getEntity().getContent(); //Get the data in the entity
}
}
catch(Exception e){
e.printStackTrace();
//createDialog("Error", "Cannot Estabilish Connection");
}
Looper.loop(); //Loop in the message queue
}
};
t.start();
}

Answer 1

I had used the same method except for how you are trying to access json data on the server.
I had used $_POST array to access it and it worked well for me. Try using,
$json = $_POST['orders'];
$obj = json_decode($json);
This had worked perfectly well for me. All the best :)
(I dont think there is a problem with $handle since something is being inserted into the table)

Answer 2

I figured out what I was doing wrong. It seems as though I was passing in a raw data type. In order to parse the string, I used the following:
$obj = json_decode(file_get_contents("php://input"));
mysql_query("INSERT INTO orders (phone_number, drink_name)
VALUES ('".$obj->{'phone_number'}."', '".$obj->{'drink_name'}."')");
Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

Answer 3

You have make a connection to the DB as follws,you have missed the $handle to make connection
$handle = mysql_connect('localhost', 'mysql_user', 'mysql_password');
if (!$handle) {
die('Not connected : ' . mysql_error());
}
// make r2bar2 the current db
$db=mysql_select_db('r2bar2',$handle);
if (!$db) {
die ('Can\'t use r2bar2 : ' . mysql_error());
}