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Asked: 2026-06-12T06:35:58+00:00

I’ve got PHP5.2 currently. I ultimately want to use json_decode , to parse the

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I’ve got PHP5.2 currently. I ultimately want to use json_decode, to parse the contents of a JSON file obtained via HTTP request.

json_decode requires the JSON to be in a string and passed as a parameter, so I’m reading in the file to a string via file_get_contents.

Think of it as:

$JSON = file_get_contents($URL);

Where $JSON is the storage string for the file contents, and $URL is the target URL to fetch the file via HTTP request. Regarding file_get_contents the PHP manual states:

The function returns the read data or FALSE on failure.

As far as failure goes, I’m assuming this returns FALSE on either a timeout (could not reach server at $URL), a 404 (reached server, but file did not exist at $URL), a 503 (reached server, but was too busy to respond properly), or a 500 (internal server error, generally shouldn’t happen).

Anyways, of the errors above I’m most concerned with the 503, the server I am hitting occasionally throws this on HTTP request. When this happens, I want to try again.

So I came up with this:

$JSON = null; //Initially set to null as we have not fetched it

for($attempt = 0; $attempt < 3; $attempt++) //Try 3 times to fetch it
    if($JSON = file_get_contents($URL)) break; //If we fetch it, stop trying to

//Kill the script if we couldn't fetch it within 3 tries
if($JSON == null) die("Could not get JSON file");

This sort of does the job, but I don’t think it’s very solid.
I was reading more about the contexts, but I don’t fully follow how to use them in PHP. Is there some way I can handle this type of thing in a much better way?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    PHP creates a variable called $http_response_header after a file_get_contents() call to a URL, you should be able to use this to your favor.

    function read_json_data($url, $attempts = 0) {

    $json = file_get_contents($url);

    if (!$json && isset($http_response_header) && strstr($http_response_header[0], '503') && $attempts++ <= 2) {

        return read_json_data($url, $attempts);

    }

    if (!$json) {

        throw new Exception("Maximum attempts or not a 503 status code.");

    }

    return json_decode($json);

}

    Usage:

    $json = read_json_data($url);

    Runs up to three times when hitting 503’s.

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