PHP JSON with UTF8 characters

Question

I'm sending a JSON message using this PHP:

$result = mysql_query("select a.id, ad.nombre, a.imagen, a.lat, a.long, ad.desc, a.url, a.email, a.tel, a.direccion, a.cp, a.poblacion, a.provincia from `bck_alrededor` a, `bck_alrededor_description` ad, `bck_alrededor_partner` ap
where a.id = ad.id_alrededor
and a.id = ap.id_alrededor
and a.id_cat = '$cat'
and ad.language = '$idioma'
and ap.id_partner = '$idp'",$link);
 while( $row = mysql_fetch_array($result) )
 { 
 $id = $row['id'];
 $nombre = $row['nombre'];
 $imagen=$row['imagen'];
 $lat=$row['lat'];
 $long=$row['long'];
 $desc=$row['desc'];
 $url=$row['url'];
 $email=$row['email'];
 $tel=$row['tel'];
 $direccion=$row['direccion'];
 $cp=$row['cp'];
 $poblacion=$row['poblacion'];
 $provincia=$row['provincia'];
 if ($imagen <>'')
 {
 $imagen = $dir.'/'.$imagen;
 }
 $posts[] = array('nid'=> $id , 'title'=> $nombre, 'image'=> $imagen , 'latitude'=> $lat, 'longitude'=> $long, 'html'=> $desc, 'web'=> $url, 'email'=> $email, 'phone'=> $tel, 'address'=> $direccion, 'cp'=> $cp, 'poblacion'=> $poblacion, 'provincia'=> $provincia );
 }
 $response['nodes'] = $posts;
 $current_charset = 'ISO-8859-15';
 array_walk_recursive($response,function(&$value) use ($current_charset){
 $value = iconv('UTF-8//TRANSLIT',$current_charset,$value);
 });
 echo json_encode($response);
 if(!headers_sent()) header('Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8', true,200);
 header('Content-type: application/json');

But I've got this JSON message with UTF8 escaped characters:

{"nodes":[{"nid":"87","title":"Tienda Oficial","image":"\/tiendaoficialgbc.png","latitude":"43.3021","longitude":"-1.9721","html":"Entra y adquiere todos los productos oficiales del GBC. En 48h los tienes en casa","web":"http:\/\/www.gipuzkoabasket.com\/tienda\/tienda_es.php","email":"[email protected].","phone":"943 44 44 28","address":"Paseo de Anoeta 22, 1a Planta","cp":"20014","poblacion":"Donostia - San Sebasti\u00e1n","provincia":"Gipuzkoa"},{"nid":"88","title":"Tienda Oficial Salaberria","image":"\/tiendaoficialgbc.png","latitude":"43.30384","longitude":"-1.9797","html":"Entra y adquiere todos los productos oficiales del GBC. En 48h los tienes en casa","web":"http:\/\/www.gipuzkoabasket.com\/tienda\/tienda_es.php","email":"[email protected].","phone":"943 44 44 28","address":"Jos\u00e9 Maria Salaberria 88","cp":"20014","poblacion":"Donostia - San Sebasti\u00e1n","provincia":""}]}

I've tried to use echo json_encode(utf8_encode($response)); but then I got a null JSON message in the client app.

How can I get a regular JSON message without UTF8 characters?

Thanks

Answer 1

\u00e1 is a perfectly valid way to escape Unicode characters in JSON. It's part of the JSON spec. To decode that to UTF-8, just json_decode it. utf8_decode has nothing to do with it.

What I don't understand is this code:

iconv('UTF-8//TRANSLIT',$current_charset,$value);

This says you're trying to convert from UTF-8//TRANSLIT to ISO-8859-15, which doesn't make much sense. The //TRANSLIT should come after ISO-8859-15, or you shouldn't be doing this conversion at all.

• theomen: Thanks for your indications. It's very strange but my client app JSON parser is giving invalid json message and I can't access address value.