Question

I am trying to pass a JSON string to my PHP script, but I am unsure of how to build the string in a way that considers there could be 0 or more telephones, emails and faxes.

Here is an example of what my string looks like:

{"mode": "ADD_CONTACT", "id": 316, "firstname": "", "lastname": "", "telephones": {"teltype": 1, "telnumber": "234523453245", "isprimary": 0, "teltype": 4, "telnumber": "657567567567", "isprimary": 0}}

The problem is that my script only gives me the last phone number, presumably because the JSON parameter names are the same, so what format should I use to achieve what I want? I would like to avoid sticking incremental numbers on the end of the parameter names i.e. “telnumber1”, “telnumber2” etc.

Answer 1

Use an array (which can be empty):

{..., "telephones": [{"teltype": 1, "telnumber": "234523453245", ...}, {...}]}

Example:

$json = 
  '{"telephones": [' .
    '{"teltype": 1, "telnumber": "222222222222"}, ' .
    '{"teltype": 1, "telnumber": "111111111111"}' .
  ']}';
print_r(json_decode($json, true));

Array
(
    [telephones] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [teltype] => 1
                    [telnumber] => 222222222222
                )
            [1] => Array
                (
                    [teltype] => 1
                    [telnumber] => 111111111111
                )
        )
)