JSON with PHP cURL

Question

I've been having some issues trying to use cURL and JSON to print out some JSON results on my page. Here's my code as it stands just now...



    // create curl resource
    $ch = curl_init();

    // set url
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "http://www.wardgraphics.com/moviepickr/collection.php?user=1");

    //return the transfer as a string
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);

    // $output contains the output string
    $output = json_decode(curl_exec($ch));

    foreach($output AS $movie) {

    // echo the output
    echo "<p>This movie title is: " . $movie->overview . "</p>";

    }

    // close curl resource to free up system resources
    curl_close($ch);

When I ouput all i get is:

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /data/26/2/45/90/2371416/user/2602457/htdocs/moviepickr/tester.php on line 15

here's an example of what's being outputted by the php file "collection.php?user=1":

{"title":"Shaun of the Dead","released":"2004-09-24","trailer":"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfBewQPFdKE","runtime":95,"overview":"Shaun of the Dead is a humorous homage to Zombie movies from director Edgar Wright; an outrageous romantic comedy with zombies.","poster":"http://cf1.imgobject.com/posters/089/4e816b465e73d6767f000089/shaun-of-the-dead-cover.jpg"}

connection.php file:



    header('Content-type: application/json');

mysql_connect('serv', 'user', 'password');  
mysql_select_db('name');

include('databasefile.php');

//'json' is set as default return format

$tmdb = new TMDb('key');

$check_collection = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM collections WHERE user_id = '$_REQUEST[user]' ORDER BY id");
while ($looped = mysql_fetch_assoc($check_collection)) {


$id = $looped[movie_id];

//Search Movie with other return format than the default

$json_movies_result = $tmdb->getMovie($id);

// Convert JSON to array of objects

$movies = json_decode($json_movies_result);

foreach ($movies AS $movie) 

{

    foreach($movie->posters as $poster) 

    {

        if ($poster->image->size == 'cover') {

        $poster_url = $poster->image->url;

        }

    }

    $id = $movie->id;

    $json_extra = $tmdb->getMovie($id);

    $extra_info = json_decode($json_extra);

    foreach($extra_info AS $extra) 

    {

        // convert json results into new php array

        $collection_array = array("title" => $movie->original_name, "released" => $movie->released, "trailer" => $extra->trailer, "runtime" => $extra->runtime, "overview" => $movie->overview, "poster" => $poster_url);

    }

}

echo json_encode($collection_array);

}

This may be simple for those of you that know your stuff, let me know if it is.

Thanks a ton!

It's just a single result that you got. Either remove the foreach. Or test the result (is_array) if that API might otherwise really return a list. — mario
– mario, Commented Oct 27, 2011 at 14:31
Don't pass the curl results directly to json_decode. If there's a failure of any sort in curl, it'll return a boolean fast, which you'll then decode, and try to foreach on. Never assume a curl call succeeded - always check for failure. — Marc B
– Marc B, Commented Oct 27, 2011 at 14:33

Ivan · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-27 20:30:13Z

3

Well the result returned by wardgraphics.com is an object not an array. So you can't do foreach on it (unless you implement iterator interface). Try printing just $output->overview

I took a look at your coolection.php output. All you need to do is to put all the movies in the array before you encode it in JSON eg.

$movies = array();
$movies[] = $movie1;
$movies[] = $movie2;
$movies[] = $movie3;
echo json_encode($movies);

instead of

echo json_encode($movie1);
echo json_encode($movie2);
echo json_encode($movie3);

If you dont have the access to coolection.php you can get individual objects by splitting the output eg:

$objects = explode('}', $output);
foreach ($objects as $object){
  $movie = json_decode($object.'}');
  echo "<p>This movie title is: " . $movie->overview . "</p>";
}

This is not perfect as this method will fail if any data inside the JSON object contains character "}". So to be safe it is better to use regular expressions here with proper check for escapes.

Here's amended code of your php file:

header('Content-type: application/json');
mysql_connect('serv', 'user', 'password');  
mysql_select_db('name');

include('databasefile.php');
//'json' is set as default return format
$tmdb = new TMDb('key');
$check_collection = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM collections WHERE user_id = '$_REQUEST[user]' ORDER BY id");
$allMovies = array(); // Initializing a variable to hold all movies
while ($looped = mysql_fetch_assoc($check_collection)) {
    $id = $looped[movie_id];
    //Search Movie with other return format than the default
    $json_movies_result = $tmdb->getMovie($id);
    // Convert JSON to array of objects
    $movies = json_decode($json_movies_result);
    foreach ($movies AS $movie) 
    {
        foreach($movie->posters as $poster) 
        {
            if ($poster->image->size == 'cover') {
                $poster_url = $poster->image->url;
            }
        }
        $id = $movie->id;
        $json_extra = $tmdb->getMovie($id);
        $extra_info = json_decode($json_extra);
        foreach($extra_info AS $extra) 
        {
            // convert json results into new php array
            $collection_array = array("title" => $movie->original_name, "released" => $movie->released, "trailer" => $extra->trailer, "runtime" => $extra->runtime, "overview" => $movie->overview, "poster" => $poster_url);
        }
    }
    $allMovies[] = $collection_array; // adding movie to the array of all movies
}
echo json_encode($allMovies); // printing json encoded array of all movies

Now you can use your initial script to display results.

edited Oct 27, 2011 at 20:30

answered Oct 27, 2011 at 14:30

Ivan

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8 Comments

Brian Ward Over a year ago

This is what my collection.php array is like: $collection_array = array("title" => $movie->original_name, "released" => $movie->released, "trailer" => $extra->trailer, "runtime" => $extra->runtime, "overview" => $movie->overview, "poster" => $poster_url);

Ivan Over a year ago

@Brian well this array contains just one movie. But you return several movies at once. So you need to add all this movies to an array before you encode it in JSON. If you post the code from collection.php i will be able to show you what exactly i mean.

Brian Ward Over a year ago

I've posted the full code to collection.php there above in my original-edited post. Cheers!

Brian Ward Over a year ago

Just wondering, this new script outputs only 1 movie, what would I need to do to output the full list? thanks again!

Ivan Over a year ago

@Brian move $allMovies[] = $collection_array; inside foreach($extra_info AS $extra) loop, after $collection_array = array("title" => ....

|

Matt Williamson · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-27 14:31:19Z

0

You're getting a hash object back which PHP interprets as an object, not a list. Change your collection.php to return

[
    {
        "title":"Shaun of the Dead",
        "released":"2004-09-24",
        "trailer":"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfBewQPFdKE",
        "runtime":95,
        "overview":"Shaun of the Dead is a humorous homage to Zombie movies from director Edgar Wright; an outrageous romantic comedy with zombies.",
        "poster":"http://cf1.imgobject.com/posters/089/4e816b465e73d6767f000089/shaun-of-the-dead-cover.jpg"
    }
]

Notice the [ and ]

answered Oct 27, 2011 at 14:31

Matt Williamson

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Comments

Patrick at CloudBudgie · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-27 14:35:40Z

0

If you set the 2nd parameter in json_decode to true, it will return the object as an array.

answered Oct 27, 2011 at 14:35

Patrick at CloudBudgie

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