PHP extract information from plain text Javascript

Question

I'm trying to extract list of movies(titles), dateTime and whether the movie is "MX4D-2D" or "VIP" etc... from this website The website is using javascript to dynamically load content, so I used file get contents and strip tags on the website and now i'm left with the javascript in a plaint text format with the list of movies information, it's formatted so:

movieData = {
        '2019-11-16': [
            /*will have to change nowPlaying to have separate dates everywhere */
            {
                'url': 'the-addams-family',
                'image-portrait': 'https://d10u9ygjms7run.cloudfront.net/0009/1573662077853_HO00002023.jpeg',
                'image-landscape': 'https://d10u9ygjms7run.cloudfront.net/0009/1573662079231_h-HO00002023.jpeg',
                'title': 'The Addams Family',
                'releaseDate': '2019-10-17',
                'endpoint': 'HO00002023',
                'duration': '87 mins',
                'rating': 'Rated PG',
                'director': 'Greg Tiernan, Conrad  Vernon',
                'actors': 'Charlize Theron, Oscar Isaac, Chloë Grace  Moretz, Allison Janney, Elsie Fisher, Nick Kroll, Bette Midler, Finn  Wolfhard, Aimee  Garcia',
                'times': [
                        { 'type': '','time': '12:45pm', 'bookingLink': 'https://themoviesticketing.com/ticketing/visSelectTickets.aspx?cinemacode&#x3D;0009&amp;txtSessionId&#x3D;41264&amp;visLang&#x3D;1', 'attributes': [] },
                ]
            },
            {
                'url': 'black-and-blue',
                'image-portrait': 'https://d10u9ygjms7run.cloudfront.net/0009/1573662057611_HO00002024.jpeg',
                'image-landscape': 'https://d10u9ygjms7run.cloudfront.net/0009/1573662058845_h-HO00002024.jpeg',
                'title': 'Black and Blue',
                'releaseDate': '2019-10-24',
                'endpoint': 'HO00002024',
                'duration': '108 mins',
                'rating': 'Rated R',
                'director': 'Deon Taylor',
                'actors': 'Naomie  Harris, Frank Grillo, Tyrese Gibson, Mike Colter, Reid Scott, Beau Knapp, Nafessa Williams',
                'times': [
                        { 'type': '','time': '10:00pm', 'bookingLink': 'https://themoviesticketing.com/ticketing/visSelectTickets.aspx?cinemacode&#x3D;0009&amp;txtSessionId&#x3D;41257&amp;visLang&#x3D;1', 'attributes': [] },
                        { 'type': '','time': '11:15pm', 'bookingLink': 'https://themoviesticketing.com/ticketing/visSelectTickets.aspx?cinemacode&#x3D;0009&amp;txtSessionId&#x3D;41229&amp;visLang&#x3D;1', 'attributes': [] },
                ]
            },

It also contains additional js that I don't need, is there an easy way to remove them and grab only the information i need? My end goal is store this in a db so i can keep track of movies from different cinema's. The full code is here: https://pastebin.com/TA0rfSB8

Refer to this https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29308898/how-do-i-extract-data-from-json-with-php — Prabhjot Singh Kainth, Nov 15 '19 at 11:34
@PrabhjotSinghKainth yes, except that's not valid JSON. @JonattanD you need to first remove `moviedata =` and the comments. Once you've done that you can consider it like a JSON file. — Federico klez Culloca, Nov 15 '19 at 11:37
Does this answer your question? [How do I extract data from JSON with PHP?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29308898/how-do-i-extract-data-from-json-with-php) — Labradorcode, Nov 15 '19 at 11:41
@Labradorcode again, that's not valid json, so no, it won't work — Federico klez Culloca, Nov 15 '19 at 11:45
@JonattanD just noticed the single quotes (thanks to Alessandro's answer) so take that into account as well. — Federico klez Culloca, Nov 15 '19 at 11:46

Alessandro Tedesco · Answer 1 · 2019-11-15T11:41:43.807

0

You can convert text representing Javascript objects (JSON) in PHP using json_decode

Example:

<?php
$json = '{"foo-bar": 12345}';

$obj = json_decode($json);
print $obj->{'foo-bar'}; // 12345
?>

You need to make sure that your text is in a proper JSON format, removing movieData = at the beginning and using double quotes instead of apostrophes. You can use this tool to validate your JSON string in order to know exactly what to change.

edited Nov 15 '19 at 11:41

answered Nov 15 '19 at 11:36

Alessandro Tedesco

144
1
16

3

The posted text is not valid JSON. – Federico klez Culloca Nov 15 '19 at 11:37
I know, he could attempt to convert it to valid JSON though. It's not the most reliable solution but if that javascript is the only input he has, this is a valid solution – Alessandro Tedesco Nov 15 '19 at 11:46
1

Yeah, when I posted my initial comment you didn't have the part where you state it's not valid JSON, so I pointed that out. I agree it's a viable (and not the best) solution. – Federico klez Culloca Nov 15 '19 at 11:47
1

Not really. If he is going to manipulate the text, he is better off using regex to get what he needs. – Martin Dimitrov Nov 15 '19 at 11:48
1

hmm I guess this is the most viable way to go, the script i'm working on is suppose to be automatic, so i need a way for it to automatically convert js objects to json, so would str_replace be the best way to go about this? – JonattanD Nov 15 '19 at 16:39

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 25 '19 at 15:07

0

So all i had to do was convert it to Json using regex to change single quotes to double quotes and format it till it became a valid json and was able to use that.

answered Nov 25 '19 at 15:07

JonattanD

61
5

PHP extract information from plain text Javascript

2 Answers2