Get JSON object from URL

Question

I have a URL that returns a JSON object like this:

{
    "expires_in":5180976,
    "access_token":"AQXzQgKTpTSjs-qiBh30aMgm3_Kb53oIf-VA733BpAogVE5jpz3jujU65WJ1XXSvVm1xr2LslGLLCWTNV5Kd_8J1YUx26axkt1E-vsOdvUAgMFH1VJwtclAXdaxRxk5UtmCWeISB6rx6NtvDt7yohnaarpBJjHWMsWYtpNn6nD87n0syud0"
}

I want to get JSON object from the URL and then the access_token value.

So how can I retrieve it through PHP?

Have a look at stackoverflow.com/questions/4343596/parsing-json-file-with-php — ophintor
– ophintor, Commented Mar 25, 2013 at 14:33

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-18 14:51:52Z

412

$json = file_get_contents('url_here');
$obj = json_decode($json);
echo $obj->access_token;

For this to work, file_get_contents requires that allow_url_fopen is enabled. This can be done at runtime by including:

ini_set("allow_url_fopen", 1);

You can also use curl to get the URL. To use curl, you can use the example found here:

$ch = curl_init();
// IMPORTANT: the below line is a security risk, read https://paragonie.com/blog/2017/10/certainty-automated-cacert-pem-management-for-php-software
// in most cases, you should set it to true
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'url_here');
$result = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$obj = json_decode($result);
echo $obj->access_token;

edited Mar 18, 2023 at 14:51

Peter Mortensen

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answered Mar 25, 2013 at 14:33

Prisoner

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6 Comments

user2199343 Over a year ago

Sorry I forgot to mention that first how do I get this string from the url then access the json object?

user2199343 Over a year ago

The error came on this line echo $obj['access_token']; Fatal error: Cannot use object of type stdClass as array in F:\wamp\www\sandbox\linkedin\test.php on line 22

netblognet Over a year ago

@user2199343 If you want to use the result as array, use ", true" in json_decode function. See my answer for example.

Cԃաԃ Over a year ago

you can put this line at the top ini_set("allow_url_fopen", 1); to enable allow_url_fopen at runtime.

Ruben Marrero Over a year ago

does curl not need allow_url_fopen enabled? Or both of them do need it?

|

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-18 14:47:11Z

29

$url = 'http://.../.../yoururl/...';
$obj = json_decode(file_get_contents($url), true);
echo $obj['access_token'];

PHP also can use properties with dashes:

garex@ustimenko ~/src/ekapusta/deploy $ psysh
Psy Shell v0.4.4 (PHP 5.5.3-1ubuntu2.6 — cli) by Justin Hileman
>>> $q = new stdClass;
=> <stdClass #000000005f2b81c80000000076756fef> {}
>>> $q->{'qwert-y'} = 123
=> 123
>>> var_dump($q);
class stdClass#174 (1) {
  public $qwert-y =>
  int(123)
}
=> null

edited Mar 18, 2023 at 14:47

Peter Mortensen

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answered Mar 25, 2013 at 14:35

gaRex

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1 Comment

Khalil Awada Over a year ago

i would prefer this answer on the chosen answer for 1 reason only the parsed json could contain index with dash character ex: {"full-name":"khalil","familiy-name":"whatever"} decoding as array will keep you on the safe side

netblognet · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-16 12:44:52Z

22

You could use PHP's json_decode function:

$url = "http://urlToYourJsonFile.com";
$json = file_get_contents($url);
$json_data = json_decode($json, true);
echo "My token: ". $json_data["access_token"];

edited Jun 16, 2014 at 12:44

answered Mar 25, 2013 at 14:36

netblognet

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1 Comment

czerasz Over a year ago

Good example but he method is called json_decode not $json_decode.

elliot42 · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-19 23:56:01Z

8

// Get the string from the URL
$json = file_get_contents('https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?latlng=40.714224,-73.961452');

// Decode the JSON string into an object
$obj = json_decode($json);

// In the case of this input, do key and array lookups to get the values
var_dump($obj->results[0]->formatted_address);

edited Nov 19, 2015 at 23:56

elliot42

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answered Nov 19, 2015 at 23:06

Toqeer Ahmed

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2 Comments

elliot42 Over a year ago

Prefer code block formatting for code, and explanatory comments, especially if the code doesn't specifically answer the question directly (in this case there are different key names etc.)

Peter Mortensen Over a year ago

Where has this been copied from? What is the source? It looks like drive by, google the question, and blindly paste the first search result as an answer.

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-18 14:53:41Z

8

You need to read about the json_decode function.

Here you go:

$json = '{"expires_in":5180976,"access_token":"AQXzQgKTpTSjs-qiBh30aMgm3_Kb53oIf-VA733BpAogVE5jpz3jujU65WJ1XXSvVm1xr2LslGLLCWTNV5Kd_8J1YUx26axkt1E-vsOdvUAgMFH1VJwtclAXdaxRxk5UtmCWeISB6rx6NtvDt7yohnaarpBJjHWMsWYtpNn6nD87n0syud0"}';
//OR $json = file_get_contents('http://someurl.dev/...');

$obj = json_decode($json);
var_dump($obj-> access_token);

//OR

$arr = json_decode($json, true);
var_dump($arr['access_token']);

edited Mar 18, 2023 at 14:53

Peter Mortensen

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answered Mar 25, 2013 at 14:37

Nick

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Comments

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-18 14:56:07Z

2

file_get_contents() was not fetching the data from a URL. Then I tried curl and it was working fine.

edited Mar 18, 2023 at 14:56

Peter Mortensen

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answered Apr 28, 2017 at 5:27

Firdous bhat

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Comments

Ya-Ze Lin · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-11 07:31:04Z

1

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'url_here');
$result = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$obj = json_decode($result);
echo $obj->access_token;

answered Jan 11, 2016 at 7:31

Ya-Ze Lin

272 bronze badges

1 Comment

T3 H40 Over a year ago

Welcome to StackOverflow! This question has already been answered multiple times! Please elaborate on how your answer is different and improves the others, instead of simply dumping some code.

YB Idea · Accepted Answer · 2019-11-01 11:52:49Z

$curl_handle=curl_init();
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_URL,'https://www.xxxSite/get_quote/ajaxGetQuoteJSON.jsp?symbol=IRCTC&series=EQ');
//Set the GET method by giving 0 value and for POST set as 1
//curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POST, 0);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "GET");
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 2);
curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
$query = curl_exec($curl_handle);
$data = json_decode($query, true);
curl_close($curl_handle);

//print complete object, just echo the variable not work so you need to use print_r to show the result
echo print_r( $data);
//at first layer
echo $data["tradedDate"];
//Inside the second layer
echo $data["data"][0]["companyName"];

Some time you might get 405, set the method type correctly.

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-18 14:59:43Z

0

Our solution, adding some validations to response, so we are sure we have a well-formed JSON object in the $json variable:

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
if (! $result) {
    return false;
}

$json = json_decode(utf8_encode($result));
if (empty($json) || json_last_error() !== JSON_ERROR_NONE) {
    return false;
}

edited Mar 18, 2023 at 14:59

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 18, 2018 at 17:28

Raul Sanchez

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Comments

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-18 15:12:42Z

0

My solution only works for the following cases:

If you are mistaking a multidimensional array into a single one:

$json = file_get_contents('url_json'); // Get the JSON content
$objhigher=json_decode($json); // Cconverts to an object
$objlower = $objhigher[0]; // If the JSON response is multidimensional, this lowers it
echo "<pre>"; // Box for code
print_r($objlower); // Prints the object with all key and values
echo $objlower->access_token; // Prints the variable

edited Mar 18, 2023 at 15:12

Peter Mortensen

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answered Apr 1, 2019 at 20:02

Billy Mainor Lemus

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Comments

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-18 14:57:53Z

-1

When you are using curl, it sometimes gives you a 403 (access forbidden).

I solved by adding this line to emulate a browser.

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, 'Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)');

edited Mar 18, 2023 at 14:57

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jul 6, 2018 at 9:46

Dev strange

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