read JSON to PHP from javascript

Question

I have an API that is available only in javascript (no PHP). It fetches some data of which I made a JSON string. What I need to know is how do I read this string in other page?

I tried using following :

$json = file_get_contents($url);

but of course the string I get is not JSON but is actually the javascript code that will generate json in original page. Any suggestions ? Thank you.

P.S. I also tried set cookie + redirect. Though that worked, I'd like to know a better solution.

Here is the javascript code

 function searchComplete() {
 if (imageSearch.results && imageSearch.results.length > 0)
 {
 var contentDiv = document.getElementById('content');
 contentDiv.innerHTML = '';
 var results = imageSearch.results;
 var data = "{['data' : [\n";
 for (var i = 0; i < results.length; i++) {
 //var result = results[i];
 var result = results[i];
 data += "{\n";
 data += "'url' : '"+result.url+"'";
 data += "\n},\n";
 }
 data += "]]}";
 setCookie("datajson", data, 1); // This is how i set the cookie and redirected
 window.location = "JSPHP.php?data="+data;
 document.getElementById('body').innerHTML = data;
 }
 }

• Pekka: Can you show what the Javascript looks like?

Answer 1

PHP have great module for it:

json_encode
json_decode

• Tadeck: mihsathe said: the string I get is not JSON but is actually the javascript code that will generate json in original page. How do you want to use json_decode() for parsing JavaScript code?

Answer 2

Ok, you said it is not JSON. Thus json_decode() function is useless here without additional things. If this happens on browser side, you should probably pass the data to the server using AJAX.

Alternatively you can take a look how this API works (maybe it connects with some server using JSONs to exchange data?) and do the same in PHP.

EDIT:

You do not need to create a string of JSON on JavaScript side. JSON is itself object notation in JavaScript.

If you need to pass the data, just do something similar to this:

var data = [];
for (var i=0; i<results.length; i++){
 data[] = {
 'url': result.url
 };
}

Then you only need to pass this data to the server. You can use .get() function (if you need to pass it using GET) from jQuery like that:

jQuery.get('http://example.com/', data, function(){
 // something to do when successful
});

It is pretty simple and the basic is: create data correctly and pass it to the server using AJAX call.

Answer 3

Make yourself a web page that executes the javascript and saves the JSON result. Then post the JSON data to a PHP script (via XmlHttpRequest or regular form POST). Now your PHP code has access to the JSON data, and you can use json_decode to access it.

• mihsathe: I tried same using a cookie (code added). Problem is when I want to access my json from other (third) page from maybe other web site. The problem is which page do I call. If I call the first, its useless. But if I call second, there's no cookie with it.
• mihsathe: Though using database is an option, that will be a shame .. lol