Parsing JSON with PHP without "json_decode" or PEAR "Services_JSON"

Question

I am working on a project at school for my data mining class, and I want to use the stackoverflow API to get raw data. I was looking at a small tutorial on using PHP to access it, and the first code sample didn't work at all. The culprit was the json_decode function. The version of PHP installed on the school server is 5.1.6, and the function exists only> = 5.2. Search here I found about using pears, but the PHP school is set to "--without-pear"

What are my best opportunities to overcome these limitations. I would prefer not to switch completely to a separate language. Is it possible to make an external function call in another language?

The line of violation was

$response = json_decode(http_inflate(file_get_contents($url))); 

Answer 1

You can install PEAR libraries without using the PEAR installation process. Just download the file from the PEAR website ( Services_JSON ) and enable it manually.

Answer 2

You can simply use JSON support directly from PEAR, it has no dependency on other PEAR libraries. I believe you will need JSON.php

Answer 3

I, too, was in a situation where I wanted to code using JSON, but only PHP v 5.1.6 was on the server. After several hours of trying, I found that all I had to do was just enable JSON.php from my PHP script and modify my AJAX Function a bit (originally obtained from the Internet - not my job).

Here are both files, I hope this will save someone from nerves.

java.js

 var request; function runAjax (JSONString, phpScript, cfunc) { if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { request = new XMLHttpRequest(); } else if (window.ActiveXObject) { try { request = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); } catch(e) { try { request = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } catch(e) { request = false; } } } request.onreadystatechange = cfunc; request.open("POST", phpScript); request.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/json", true); request.send(JSONString); } function smazVzor (id) { var JSONObject = new Object; JSONObject.id = id; JSONString = JSON.stringify(JSONObject); runAjax(JSONString, "./ajax/smaz_vzor.php", function () { if (request.readyState == 4) { var JSONObject = JSON.parse(request.responseText); alert(JSONObject.zprava); if (JSONObject.kod == 1) document.location.href = "./index.php"; } }); } 

smaz_vzor.php

 <?php require("../../include/dbconnect.php"); // just some commands for MySQL require('../../include/JSON/JSON.php'); // <-- THIS IS IMPORTANT $json = new Services_JSON(); // create a new instance of Services_JSON class $str_json = file_get_contents('php://input'); // read fiel send by POST method as text $decoded = $json->decode($str_json); // decode JSON string to PHP object $sql = "DELETE FROM Obory_vzory WHERE id = '$decoded->id'"; $response = array(); // create response array if (!mysql_query($sql, $pripojeni)) { $response['kod'] = 0; $response['zprava'] = "Something got wrong.\nError: ".mysql_error(); } else { $response['kod'] = 1; $response['zprava'] = "Operation successful."; } $encoded = $json->encode($response); // encode array $json to JSON string die($encoded); // send response back to java and end script execution ?>