Parsing JSON data nested in response into PHP variable

Question

Im pretty intermediate when it comes to PHP and working with APIs is extremely new to me. Please go easy on me.

I have one file that grabs the information of a binder via API. The second file updates the binder. What I am trying to do is, when updating a binder, the binder ID will be parsed from the JSON response get_binders.php returns.

I tried the following within the get_binders.php file:

$binder_info = $binder_id->binders->binder[0]->id;
foreach ($binder_info as $binder_id){
    echo $binder_id->id;
}

When I run get_binders.php with the above code addition, I get the following:

PHP   2. json_decode($json = ['code' => 'RESPONSE_SUCCESS', 'data' => ['unread_feeds' => 0,
 'binders' => [...]]]) /mnt/e/xampp/htdocs/api_testing/get_binders.php:20 
PHP Notice:  Trying to get property 'binders' of non-object in
 /mnt/e/xampp/htdocs/api_testing/get_binders.php on line 21

I have tried multiple different things. I have looked at numerous posts. I cannot figure out how to grab the binder ID and pass that into a variable called $binder_id so I can call that when update_binder.php is run. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

update_binder

<?php

include('create_access_token.php');
include('auth.inc.php');
include('get_binders.php');

// for debugging
// var_dump($token);

$message_text = "This is a new message";

$data = [
    'text' => $message_text
 ];


// turns on php output buffer for debugging
// ob_start();  
// $out = fopen('php://output', 'w');

$data_json = json_encode($data);
$api_url = ''.$site_url.'/v1/'.$binder_id.'/comments?access_token='.$token['access_token'].'';

$ch = curl_init();

// for debugging
// curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, true);  
// curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_STDERR, $out);  


// normal curl options
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $api_url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-Type: application/json'));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,$data_json);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

$binder_data  = curl_exec($ch);

// closes stream and grabs information from output
// fclose($out);  
// $debug = ob_get_clean();

curl_close($ch);
print_r ($binder_data);

// prints debug information
//print_r ($debug);

?>

get_binders.php

<?php

include('create_access_token.php');
include('auth.inc.php');

// for debugging
// var_dump($token);

$tag_value = "Ticket1";

$api_url = ''.$site_url.'/v1/'.$org_id.'/users/'.$email.'/binders?access_token='.$token['access_token'].'&filter=binder&is_email=true&tags_include='.$tag_value.'';

$json_data = file_get_contents($api_url);
$response_data = json_decode($json_data, true);

?>

JSON response

UPDATE

Updated get_binders.php with the following:

$binder_info = $response_data['data']['binders'][0]['binder'];
echo $binder_info

Looking at my code, I am thinking that $binder_id should actually be $response_data. Is that correct?

When I do use that I get the following:

 PHP Notice:  Array to string conversion in /mnt/e/xampp/htdocs/api_testing/get_binders.php on line 18

As you can see from json response, `binders` is inside `data` object and you're trying to access the `binders` property directly from the response `$binder_info = $binder_id->binders->binder[0]->id;` and it's returning error, so change it to `$binder_info = $binder_id->data->binders->binder[0]->id;` — Haridarshan, May 25 '21 at 19:46
Just updated my answer. you can try that and I think that will be the final solution. — Albert Logic Einstein, May 25 '21 at 20:12

Albert Logic Einstein · Accepted Answer · 2021-05-25T20:27:22.993

The parsed json is returning an array not an object, so you will have to use it as a array.

so:

$binder_info = $binder_id['data']['binders'][0]['binder']['id'];

and also why are you running a foreach loop on a $binder_info ? as it is a string, it will also give an foreach loop error.

instead of the foreach loop, simply:

echo $binder_info as it contains the id.

UPDATE
to pass the variable to your update_binder page, simply initialize a new variable $binder_id = $binder_id['data']['binders'][0]['binder']['id']; in your get_binder page.

Parsing JSON data nested in response into PHP variable

1 Answers1