Nested PHP Array to JSON

Question

This for an open source plugin I'm adding a feature to allow using a template to be able to generate output using Handlebars, instead of using PHP for handlebars i want to use js so I need the JSON output like below. You can see this file on GitHub here.

How to get the array setup correctly?

The problem is JSON is output for the resourcify_sources, it's not actually outputting as an array of objects, it outputs the JSON with the actual index and then the values are array of index

So here's what I need the JSON output to look like:

{
  "resourcify_count": 3,
  "resourcify_count_title": null,
  "resourcify_sources": [
    {
      "source_type": "source",
      "source_title": "Source Title",
      "source_url": "http://what.com"
    },
    {
      "source_type": "resource",
      "source_title": "Source Resource!",
      "source_url": "http://sourceresource.com"
    },
    {
      "source_type": "quote",
      "source_title": "Quote Source",
      "source_url": "http://quotesource.com"
    }
  ]
}

Here's a var_dump of the $sources:

array (size=5)
  'source_type' => 
    array (size=5)
      0 => string 'source' (length=6)
      1 => string 'resource' (length=8)
      3 => string 'source' (length=6)
      4 => string 'resource' (length=8)
      5 => string 'quote' (length=5)
  'source_title' => 
    array (size=5)
      0 => string 'Source Title' (length=12)
      1 => string 'Resource' (length=8)
      3 => string 'SourceTWO' (length=9)
      4 => string 'ResourceTWO' (length=11)
      5 => string 'QuoteTWO' (length=8)
  'source_url' => 
    array (size=5)
      0 => string 'http://what.com' (length=15)
      1 => string 'resource.com' (length=12)
      3 => string 'sourcetwo.com' (length=13)
      4 => string 'resourcetwo.com' (length=15)
      5 => string 'quotetwo.com' (length=12)

And here's the for loop I am using:

for ($i = 0; $i < $total_sources; $i++){
    $source_type = $sources['source_type'][$i];
    $source_title = $sources['source_title'][$i];
    $source_url = $sources['source_url'][$i];

    if ($source_url){
        $source_url = esc_url_raw($source_url);

        if (!$source_title) $source_title = $source_url;

        $source_json['resourcify_sources'][$i]['source_type'] = $source_type;
        $source_json['resourcify_sources'][$i]['source_title'] = $source_title;
        $source_json['resourcify_sources'][$i]['source_url'] = $source_url;
    }
}

Your output doesn't match what's in the array, little confusing. — Bryan
– Bryan, Commented Apr 3, 2014 at 3:03

Giacomo1968 · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-03 03:42:15Z

1

You set $total_sources with total number of the array, so your loop will be like:

Loop   Dependency
0      $sources['source_url'][0]
1      $sources['source_url'][1]
2      $sources['source_url'][2] -> undefined
3      $sources['source_url'][3]
4      $sources['source_url'][4]

so the loop times will be incorrect if there's any gap between the indexes (In your case you could not get $sources['source_url'][5]). It's recommended that you add a if-condition to pass the undefined value. You should obtain the last index number of $sources['source_title'] for $total_sources

em.. what does $source_url = $source_url; used for..?

If you don't want the actual index so just simply sort($source_json['resourcify_sources']) to produce new indexes.

For example:

<?php

end($sources['source_title']);

$total_sources = key($sources['source_title']);

for ($i = 0; $i <= $total_sources; $i++){

    if(!$sources['source_title']) continue;

    $source_type = $sources['source_type'][$i];
    $source_title = $sources['source_title'][$i];
    $source_url = $sources['source_url'][$i];

    if ($source_url){

        $source_url = esc_url_raw($source_url);

        if (!$source_title) $source_title = $source_url;

        $source_json['resourcify_sources'][$i]['source_type'] = $source_type;
        $source_json['resourcify_sources'][$i]['source_title'] = $source_title;
        $source_json['resourcify_sources'][$i]['source_url'] = $source_url;

    }

}

sort($source_json['resourcify_sources']);

?>

edited Apr 3, 2014 at 3:42

Giacomo1968

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answered Apr 3, 2014 at 3:37

Sam Ye

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3 Comments

sMyles Over a year ago

Ah that's exactly what it was, there was a missing index and that's got to be what's causing it. Let me give this a try and i'll report back.

sMyles Over a year ago

The $source_url = esc_url_raw($source_url) uses internal WP function to escape and format the URL correctly (the $source_url value is coming from user)

sMyles Over a year ago

Worked perfectly, thank you so much! The problem was if someone has left a blank metabox in the middle of the sources, like you said it does have one index missing, after I modified the code like above it works just as expected, thanks so much!!!

Bryan · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-03 03:16:10Z

0

Don't know exatcly what you had going wrong, But I did this to get the results you're looking for...

$sources = array (


'source_type' => 
    array (
        'source' ,
        'resource' ,
      'source' ,
        'resource' ,
        'quote' 
      ),
  'source_title' => 
    array (
      'Source Title' ,
       'Resource' ,
       'SourceTWO' ,
       'ResourceTWO' ,
       'QuoteTWO' 
      ),
  'source_url' => 
    array (
      'http://what.com' ,
       'resource.com' ,
       'sourcetwo.com' ,
       'resourcetwo.com' ,
       'quotetwo.com' 
      )
);
$source_json = array();
$source_json['resourcify_count'] =count($sources['source_type']);
$source_json["resourcify_count_title"] = 'null';

for ($i = 0; $i < count($sources['source_type']); $i++){
    $source_type = $sources['source_type'][$i];
    $source_title = $sources['source_title'][$i];
    $source_url = $sources['source_url'][$i];

    if ($source_url){
        $source_url = $source_url;

        if (!$source_title) $source_title = $source_url;

        $source_json['resourcify_sources'][$i]['source_type'] = $source_type;
        $source_json['resourcify_sources'][$i]['source_title'] = $source_title;
        $source_json['resourcify_sources'][$i]['source_url'] = $source_url;
    }
}
var_dump(json_encode($source_json));

Maybe all you needed was the json_encode ?

answered Apr 3, 2014 at 3:16

Bryan

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1 Comment

sMyles Over a year ago

Thanks for the response, it does output correctly but it seems the problem i was having was with a missing index, but thanks for your input!

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