Access data in JSON via PHP

Question

I am trying to access data that is generated via directory services from a database creating ics files that are being sent to a website via JSON encoding.

There are multiple files or unknown amount being generated. My main issue at this point, is I need to parse the information out of the JSON files back into ics files.

What I am stuck with at the moment is reading the information IN the JSON files.

The JSON files are something like this:

{
  "SMSDATA": {
      "date": 20170817062448,
      "person": {
          "data":[{
             "person": 321654978,
             "information": "person information"
          },{
             "person": 3216549,
             "information": "person information"
          }]
}}

What I am trying to do is dig deep and get the person and information data out into the ics file.

What I have at the moment in PHP to simply display the data to see if I am accessing the correct data is:

    $str = '../filename/test.json'; // The location of the files
    $contents = file_get_contents($str);  // get the information from the file
    $decode = json_decode($contents, true); // Creates the JSON as an array

    //array loop
    foreach($decode as $key => $value){
    echo $value["person"]. " -> " . $value["information"]. "<br>"; // Should display the information needed
    print_r ($value);  // test dump of data
}

I'm well aware that I'm not digging deep enough. I found this resourse really helpful: How do I extract data from JSON with PHP?, as well as Convert and Loop through JSON with PHP and JavaScript Arrays/Objects. I also believe that ICal Parser will be of great use but not sure how to use it at this stage.

I want to just make sure I'm reading the correct data for now, then next step will be to create the .ics files with the person and information data.

Thank you everyone for your help.

(BTW, I've only been using PHP for a couple months)

What is your question? Looks to me like you probably want `foreach ($decode['SMSDATA']['person']['data'] as $value)` — Phil, Aug 21 '17 at 00:11
Sorry! I'm trying to "dig deep enough" to access the `person` and `information` values. — Pierre Odendaal, Aug 21 '17 at 00:14

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 21 '17 at 00:11

You are correct, you are not starting your loop on the correct array member.

$contents = '{
        "SMSDATA": {
            "date": 20170817062448,
            "person": {
                "data":[{
                   "person": 321654978,
                   "information": "person information"
                },{
                   "person": 3216549,
                   "information": "person information"
                }]
            }
    }
}';

$decode = json_decode($contents, true);
print_r($decode);

foreach($decode['SMSDATA']['person']['data'] as $value){
    echo $value["person"]. " -> " . $value["information"]. "<br>";
}

Results

321654978 -> person information<br>
3216549 -> person information<br>

Thank you for your help :-) That all makes sense as to how to dig down into the JSON file! - N0w to work out how to cycle through the files and save the `person` data into ics files! — Pierre Odendaal, Aug 21 '17 at 00:39

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 21 '17 at 00:18

First of all, your json is misformed. There was one missing bracket.

Here is the right json:

{
  "SMSDATA": {
    "date": 20170817062448,
    "person": {
      "data": [{
        "person": 321654978,
        "information": "person information"
      }, {
        "person": 3216549,
        "information": "person information"
      }]
    }
  }
}

And for the php file, you need to loop through array but since it's a multidimensional array, it will need more than one foreach. I also added pre to display the array it returned properly so it's easier for you to see how the array looks like. Here is the php file:

<?php

$str = 'test.json'; // The location of the files
    $contents = file_get_contents($str);  // get the information from the file

    $decode = json_decode($contents, true); // Creates the JSON as an array

    echo "<pre>".print_r($decode, true)."</pre>";


    foreach ($decode as $key => $value) {
        echo $value["date"]."<br>";
        foreach ($value["person"] as $k => $val) {
            foreach ($val as $index => $data) {
                echo $data["person"]."<br>";
                echo $data["information"]."<br>";
            }
        }

    }


?>

Thank you for that! The JSON file is ~2mb in size was some trimming was done :-) Your nested foreach loops have done the trick! Thank you so much! — Pierre Odendaal, Aug 21 '17 at 00:34

Access data in JSON via PHP

2 Answers2