Facebook Graph API : Parsing the output - php

Question

I am trying to get the names of my friends using FB Graph API with this call :
$friends = file_get_contents('https://graph.facebook.com/me/friendsaccess_token='.$session["access_token"]);
echo "Friends : $friends\n";
This gives me a list of the form :
{"data":[{"name":"ABC XYZ","id":"12212839"},{"name":"PQR GHI","id":"5004678"}]}
I want to be able to store only the NAMES in an array. How do I use $friends to get the names ? Something like $friends['name'] doesn't seem to work.
Please help.
Thank you.

Answer 1

$friends = json_decode($friends);
foreach($friends['data'] as $friend)
{
echo $friend['name'];
}
The return is a json object, you need to decode it. Although I strongly urge you to use an SDK such as http://github.com/facebook/php-sdk/
If this doesn't work try:
$friends = json_decode($friends);
foreach($friends->data as $friend)
{
echo $friend->name;
}

Answer 2

Here is what I did to get the posts information.. crude but it works. Note that the shares likes comments and reactions are one level deeper in the JSON object
$posts = json_decode($output); // from FB Graph v2.8 API call
foreach($posts->data as $post)
{
echo "MESSAGE: ", $post->message, "<br>";
echo "NAME: ", $post->name, "<br>";
echo "TYPE: ", $post->type, "<br>";
echo "ID: ", $post->id, "<br>";
echo "LINK: ", $post->link, "<br>";
echo "PERMALINK: ", $post->permalink_url, "<br>";
echo "CREATED: ", $post->created_time, "<br>";
if($post->shares->count == "") { $shares = "0"; } else { $shares = $post->shares->count; }
echo "SHARES: ", $shares, "<br>";
if($post->reactions->summary->total_count == "") { $reactions = "0"; } else { $reactions = $post->reactions->summary->total_count; }
echo "REACTIONS: ", $reactions, "<br>";
if($post->comments->summary->total_count == "") { $comments = "0"; } else { $comments = $post->comments->summary->total_count; }
echo "COMMENTS: ", $comments, "<br>";
if($post->likes->summary->total_count == "") { $likes = "0"; } else { $likes = $post->likes->summary->total_count; }
echo "LIKES: ", $likes, "<br>";
echo "<br><br>";
}