JSON Encode and Decode

Question

I have an array like this:

Array (
 [utm_source] => website
 [utm_medium] => fbshare
 [utm_campaign] => camp1
 [test_cat] => red
 [test_sub] => Category
 [test_ref] => rjdepe
)

which I json_encode and put into a cookie. I take it from the cookie and now want to decode it but I get a blank screen. I am confused as to what is wrong. To me this JSON looks correct:

{"utm_source":"website","utm_medium":"fbshare","utm_campaign":"camp1","test_cat":"red","test_sub":"Category","test_ref":"dodere"}

Any ideas?

Edit:

My code:

$value = array(
 'utm_source' => 'website',
 'utm_medium' => 'fbshare',
 'utm_campaign' => 'camp1',
 'test_cat' => 'red',
 'test_sub' => 'Category',
 'test_ref' => 'rjdepe'
);
$value = json_encode($value);
setcookie("TestCookie", $value, time()+3600);

Other Page:

$cookie = $_COOKIE['TestCookie'];
$cookie = json_decode($cookie);
print_r($cookie);

• zerkms: @dqlopez: it's a result of print_r
• Skudd: Can you add a snippet of how you're actually doing this? Also, do your web server logs show anything relevant? Make sure you have error_reporting set to something high enough to report it properly, and maybe make sure display_errors is set to true.
• Andreas Wong: @dqlopez it's a result of print_r :o
• user377628: I tried you JSON on a validator, and it is indeed valid JSON.
• cKendrick: added my code, what do you mean its a result of print_r?

Answer 1

Try base64_encoding it like such:

$value = array(
 'utm_source' => 'website',
 'utm_medium' => 'fbshare',
 'utm_campaign' => 'camp1',
 'test_cat' => 'red',
 'test_sub' => 'Category',
 'test_ref' => 'rjdepe'
);
$value = base64_encode(json_encode($value));
setcookie("TestCookie", $value, time()+3600);

Other Page:

$cookie = $_COOKIE['TestCookie'];
$cookie = json_decode(base64_decode($cookie));
print_r($cookie);

Answer 2

Before your:

print_r($cookie);

Do:

json_last_error();

Does it return anything? If you are getting a blank screen, it may be because the parser is failing, likely the results of the "'s in the json string within the cookie being escaped \". Try:

$cookie = json_decode(stripslashes($_COOKIE['TestCookie']));

Update

So I used the following code, and received the following output:

 $value = array(
 'utm_source' => 'website',
 'utm_medium' => 'fbshare',
 'utm_campaign' => 'camp1',
 'test_cat' => 'red',
 'test_sub' => 'Category',
 'test_ref' => 'rjdepe'
 );
 var_dump($value);
 setcookie('TestCookie', json_encode($value), time()+86400);
 echo $_COOKIE['TestCookie'];
 print_r(json_decode($_COOKIE['TestCookie']));

Output

array(6) {
 ["utm_source"]=>
 string(7) "website"
 ["utm_medium"]=>
 string(7) "fbshare"
 ["utm_campaign"]=>
 string(5) "camp1"
 ["test_cat"]=>
 string(3) "red"
 ["test_sub"]=>
 string(8) "Category"
 ["test_ref"]=>
 string(6) "rjdepe"
}
{
 "utm_source":"website",
 "utm_medium":"fbshare",
 "utm_campaign":"camp1",
 "test_cat":"red",
 "test_sub":"Category",
 "test_ref":"rjdepe"
}
stdClass Object
(
 [utm_source] => website
 [utm_medium] => fbshare
 [utm_campaign] => camp1
 [test_cat] => red
 [test_sub] => Category
 [test_ref] => rjdepe
)

If you notice, encoded is an array. The json string is a string. The decoded string is an object.

You can type cast this to an array:

$value = (array) json_decode($_COOKIE['TestCookie']);
// Or
$value = json_decode($_COOKIE['TestCookie'], true);

Also,

Depending on your configuration, PHP may escape special characters in your cookie, which seems to be what your JSON decode error is relaying.

Try doing:

json_decode(str_replace('\"', '"', $_COOKIE['TestCookie']), true);

• cKendrick: I get 4 = JSON_ERROR_SYNTAX when I do json_last_error(); I tried what you gave me but strip_slashes does not work did you mean stripslashes?
• cKendrick: I tried to decode the data when it is not a cookie and it seems to decode fine but if I pull it from the cookie it does not work.