Json decoding the response returned from the Google Dictionary API in PHP

Question

I trying to make a request to this url to get a definition of a pizza... http://www.google.com/dictionary/json?callback=a&client=p&sl=en&tl=en&q=pizza

My initial response looks like this.....

a({"query":"pizza","sourceLanguage":"en","targetLanguage":"en","primaries":[{"type":"headword","terms":[{"type":"text","text":"pizÂ·za","language":"en","labels":[{"text":"Noun","title":"Part-of-speech"}]},{"type":"phonetic","text":"/ËˆpÄ“tsÉ™/","language":"und"},{"type":"sound","text":"http://www.gstatic.com/dictionary/static/sounds/de/0/pizza.mp3","language":"und"}],"entries":[{"type":"related","terms":[{"type":"text","text":"pizzas","language":"und","labels":[{"text":"plural"}]}]},{"type":"meaning","terms":[{"type":"text","text":"A dish of Italian origin consisting of a flat, round base of dough baked with a topping of tomato sauce and cheese, typically with added meat or vegetables","language":"en"}]}]}]},200,null)

After trawling through the internet and similiar issues on stackovrflow (e.g. json_decode for Google Dictionary API) I use the following bit of code to clean it up before trying to decode it....

$rawdata = preg_replace("/\\\x[0-9a-f]{2}/", "", $rawdata);
$raw = explode("{",$rawdata);
unset($raw[0]);
$rawdata = implode($raw);

$raw = explode("}", $rawdata);
unset($raw[count($raw)-1]);
$rawdata = implode($raw);

$rawdata = "{". $rawdata ."}";

Which gives me the following json-looking string...

{"query":"pizza","sourceLanguage":"en","targetLanguage":"en","primaries":["type":"headword","terms":["type":"text","text":"pizÂ·za","language":"en","labels":["text":"Noun","title":"Part-of-speech"],"type":"phonetic","text":"/ËˆpÄ“tsÉ™/","language":"und","type":"sound","text":"http://www.gstatic.com/dictionary/static/sounds/de/0/pizza.mp3","language":"und"],"entries":["type":"related","terms":["type":"text","text":"pizzas","language":"und","labels":["text":"plural"]],"type":"meaning","terms":["type":"text","text":"A dish of Italian origin consisting of a flat, round base of dough baked with a topping of tomato sauce and cheese, typically with added meat or vegetables","language":"en"]]]}

But it still wont decode correctly and I am stumped....

I have been using this tool here http://json.parser.online.fr/ and it says... SyntaxError: Unexpected token :

I am now thinking that all my original hacking of the json response to make the decodable is just making my problem worse and that there is a probably a much better way to handle the original response.

Can anyone shed any light on my issue?

Thanks in advance :D

In you request, you're asking for a 'callback=a'. The result you're getting is jsonp object. as you can see, the json object is inside of an function 'a'. This function 'a' is a callback, that google is returning to you with the json object. For example, open your console (F12 in chrome and firefox) and write there: 'function a(json) { console.log(json)l };' and then put the response and you'll see the object — Michael Arenzon
– Michael Arenzon, Commented Sep 28, 2013 at 17:40
I rather probably incorrectly assumed that by removing call back parts that what would be left over is just the json... — AttikAttak
– AttikAttak, Commented Sep 28, 2013 at 17:43
Yes, that would be true. Unfortunately at present you are removing required pieces of the json body. In particular, where you have arrays [] and you have json objects inside [{"foo": "bar", "foo2": "bar2" }] you are stripping out the {}. You need to fix your regex so that it doesn't invalidate the json. — gview
– gview, Commented Sep 28, 2013 at 17:48
The json seems fine to me. You're removing the padding correctly. After searching a bit, I've found this article: timelessrepo.com/json-isnt-a-javascript-subset I think its explains it all. Btw, try to send query without callback=a, maybe you won't have to remove the padding :) — Michael Arenzon
– Michael Arenzon, Commented Sep 28, 2013 at 17:51
@MichaelArenzon The original json is fine... it's his extraction code that is broken. — gview
– gview, Commented Sep 28, 2013 at 18:14

gview · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-28 18:33:16Z

I think this is a case of overcomplicating something. The regex default property of greediness makes it simple to pull out the full json body between the first and last {}.

<?php

$str = 'a({"query":"pizza","sourceLanguage":"en","targetLanguage":"en","primaries":[{"type":"headword","terms":[{"type":"text","text":"pizÂ·za","language":"en","labels":[{"text":"Noun","title":"Part-of-speech"}]},{"type":"phonetic","text":"/ËˆpÄ“tsÉ™/","language":"und"},{"type":"sound","text":"http://www.gstatic.com/dictionary/static/sounds/de/0/pizza.mp3","language":"und"}],"entries":[{"type":"related","terms":[{"type":"text","text":"pizzas","language":"und","labels":[{"text":"plural"}]}]},{"type":"meaning","terms":[{"type":"text","text":"A dish of Italian origin consisting of a flat, round base of dough baked with a topping of tomato sauce and cheese, typically with added meat or vegetables","language":"en"}]}]}]},200,null)';

if (preg_match('/\{.*\}/', $str, $matches)) {
        $json = json_decode($matches[0], true);
        var_dump($json);
}

Returns you:

array(4) {
  ["query"]=>
  string(5) "pizza"
  ["sourceLanguage"]=>
  string(2) "en"
  ["targetLanguage"]=>
  string(2) "en"
  ["primaries"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    array(3) {
      ["type"]=>
      string(8) "headword"
      ["terms"]=>
      array(3) {
        [0]=>
        array(4) {
          ["type"]=>
          string(4) "text"
          ["text"]=>
          string(9) "pizÂ·za"
          ["language"]=>
          string(2) "en"
          ["labels"]=>
          array(1) {
            [0]=>
            array(2) {
              ["text"]=>
              string(4) "Noun"
              ["title"]=>
              string(14) "Part-of-speech"
            }
          }
        }
        [1]=>
        array(3) {
          ["type"]=>
          string(8) "phonetic"
          ["text"]=>
          string(19) "/ËˆpÄ“tsÉ™/"
          ["language"]=>
          string(3) "und"
        }
        [2]=>
        array(3) {
          ["type"]=>
          string(5) "sound"
          ["text"]=>
          string(62) "http://www.gstatic.com/dictionary/static/sounds/de/0/pizza.mp3"
          ["language"]=>
          string(3) "und"
        }
      }
      ["entries"]=>
      array(2) {
        [0]=>
        array(2) {
          ["type"]=>
          string(7) "related"
          ["terms"]=>
          array(1) {
            [0]=>
            array(4) {
              ["type"]=>
              string(4) "text"
              ["text"]=>
              string(6) "pizzas"
              ["language"]=>
              string(3) "und"
              ["labels"]=>
              array(1) {
                [0]=>
                array(1) {
                  ["text"]=>
                  string(6) "plural"
                }
              }
            }
          }
        }
        [1]=>
        array(2) {
          ["type"]=>
          string(7) "meaning"
          ["terms"]=>
          array(1) {
            [0]=>
            array(3) {
              ["type"]=>
              string(4) "text"
              ["text"]=>
              string(155) "A dish of Italian origin consisting of a flat, round base of dough baked with a topping of tomato sauce and cheese, typically with added meat or vegetables"
              ["language"]=>
              string(2) "en"
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

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