Question

Disclaimer: I am fairly new to using json.

I am trying to use php to receive json data from an iPAd application. I know how to convert json to an array in php, but how do I actually receive it and store it into a variable so it can be decoded?

Here are a couple examples that I have tried based on google and stackoverflow searches.

$json_request = @file_get_contents('php://input'); 
$array = json_decode($json_request);

AND ALSO

$array = json_decode($_POST['data'], true);

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

You have the basic idea already.

you should test that the value is set and also strip extra slashes from the incoming string before trying to parse it as JSON.

if(isset($_POST['data'])){
  $array = json_decode(stripslashes($_POST['data']),true);
  //$array now holds an associative array
}//Data Exists

It also would not be a bad idea before you start working with the array to test that the call to json_decode() was successful by ensuring that $array isn’t null before use.

If you do not fully trust the integrity of the information being sent you should do extended checking along the way instead of trusting that a given key exists.

if($array){ // Or (!is_null($array)) Or (is_array($array)) could be used
  //Process individual information here

  //Without trust
  if(isset($array['Firstname'])){
    $CustomerId = $array['Firstname'];
  }//Firstname exists
}//$array is valid

I in-particular like to verify information when I am building queries dynamically for information that may not be required for a successful db insert.

In the above example $_POST['data'] indicates that what ever called the PHP script did so passing the JSON string using the post method in a variable identified as data.

You could check more generically to allow flexibility in the sending method by using the $_REQUEST variable, or if you know it is coming as via the get method you can check $_GET. $_REQUEST holds all incoming parameters from both get and post.

If you don’t know what the name of the variable coming in is and want to play really fast and loose you could loop over the keys in $_REQUEST trying to decode each one and use the one that successfully decoded (if any). [Note: I’m not encouraging this]