Return JSON object from php script

Question

I am making an AJAX GET request using jQuery to a PHP file. I want the PHP script to return a JSON object, however, currently it is returning a JSON string. I realise I can use JSON.parse in the jQuery code, however, any experience I have in making an AJAX call to an API a JSON object is returned. I am trying to do the same with the php script however, it is returning a string as opposed to an object.

Does anyone know what the best practice is here, and if the best practise is to return a JSON object how I would do this using PHP?

Please see the code below:

js

$.get('test.php', function(data){
 console.log((data));
});

php

<?php
$jsonAnswer = array('test' => 'true');
echo json_encode($jsonAnswer);

• gcampbell: What's the problem with JSON.parse? There's probably some jQuery method that parses the response automatically, which might be what you're thinking about.
• user6002037: its not that there is a problem with JSON.parse but i just want to know if i can do this server side so that the correct format is received in the browser. does this make sense?
• gcampbell: You can only send strings over the internet.
• Andreas: There's no such thing as a "JSON object"
• gcampbell: That's because jQuery calls JSON.parse for you. Anyway, it works now.

Answer 1

In your PHP file, change the content type to application/json.

JS

$.get('/process.php', function(data) { 
 console.log(data);
} );

PHP

<?php
 header( "Content-type: application/json" );
 $jsonAnswer = array('test' => 'true');
 echo json_encode($jsonAnswer);

Then your console should read Object {test: "true"} rather than just the JSON string.

• user6002037: this is what I was looking for

Answer 2

Add json to the end of your get function to return json

$.get('test.php', function(data){
 console.log((data));
},'json');//here

and/or add this header in php

header('Content-Type: application/json');

more info here

• madalinivascu: get, getjson, ajax same thing
• Jai: @madalinivascu no not same thing.
• user6002037: this is what I was looking for, however, i didn't have to add 'json' to the get request
• madalinivascu: the json at the end ensures that the data received is parsed as json
• gcampbell: @madalinivascu jQuery tries to automatically guess it.

Answer 3

Without modifying PHP script you can do:

$.get( "test.php", function( data ) {
 var arr = $.parseJSON(data);
 console.log(arr);
 alert(arr.test);
});

• Marcus Parsons: Although technically you can just parse the json (you can use JSON.parse() which is native to JavaScript instead of going through the jQuery library to do so), sending text based responses that are meant to be JSON responses is not a good idea and can lead to mismatching data and unexpected results. -1.