What's wrong with this php json script?

Question

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How to get useful error messages in PHP?

I can't get this php json script to work. I'm trying to get the screen name from twitter, using their api.

Here's what I did.

$send_request = file_get_contents('https://api.twitter.com/1/users/lookup.json?screen_name=frankmeacey');

$request_contents = json_decode($send_request);

echo $request_contents->screen_name;

Why is this returning a blank value every time? I've tried changing things here and there and it's just not working...

@hakre While the answer to that question would help solve this, they're hardly duplicates. By that logic, every question involving PHP errors is a duplicate of that question. — Barmar, Oct 01 '12 at 17:48

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 01 '12 at 15:45

1

Because the data structure you get back is an array of objects, not an object.

echo $request_contents[0]->screen_name;

answered Oct 01 '12 at 15:45

Quentin

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 01 '12 at 15:45

That data looks to be an object inside an array. Try

echo $request_contents[0]->screen_name;

Best to check first it is an array and to get the first user from it:

if (is_array($request_contents)) {
    $user_info = $request_contents[0];
}

if (isset($user_info)) {
    echo $user_info->screen_name;
}

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 01 '12 at 15:47

0

It's

$request_contents[0]->screen_name

since $request_contents is an array of objects, not the object itself.

Do a

var_dump($request_contents);

to see the structure of your json.

answered Oct 01 '12 at 15:47

MiDo

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score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 01 '12 at 15:55

0

try to use

print_r($request_contents);

OR

var_dump($request_contents);

for checking array.

edited Oct 01 '12 at 15:55

Bot

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answered Oct 01 '12 at 15:48

Yogesh Suthar

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 01 '12 at 15:50

Your page should not be blank .. you should get an error like Notice: Trying to get property of non-object in since you are calling $request_contents->screen_name which is not valid.

Try telling PHP to output all error Using

error_reporting(E_ALL);

I also prefer CURL its faster

$ch = curl_init("https://api.twitter.com/1/users/lookup.json?screen_name=frankmeacey");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$request_contents = json_decode($result);
var_dump($request_contents[0]->screen_name);

Output

 string 'frankmeacey' (length=11)

What's wrong with this php json script?

5 Answers5