PHP function to get data from web service

Question

How can I get data from this web service using PHP?

I need a simple PHP function to list the countries.

Web service Data

{
 "valid":true,
 "id":"0",
 "data":{
 "@type":"genericObjectArray",
 "item":[
 {
 "id":"DE",
 "description":"Deutschland"
 },
 {
 "id":"ES",
 "description":"España"
 },
 {
 "id":"FR",
 "description":"France"
 },
 {
 "id":"PT",
 "description":"Portugal"
 },
 {
 "id":"UK",
 "description":"United Kingdom"
 },
 {
 "id":"US",
 "description":"United States"
 }
 ]
 }
}

Answer 1

Assuming allow_url_fopen is on in php.ini (if not, use cURL library).

$json = file_get_contents('http://onleague.stormrise.pt:8031/OnLeagueRest/resources/onleague/Utils/Countries ');
$data = json_decode($json, TRUE);
$countries = array(); 
foreach($data['data']['item'] as $item) {
 $countries[] = $item['description'];
}

CodePad.

Of course, handle if $json is FALSE (error with request).

Alternatively, if using>= PHP 5.3.

$countries = array_map(function($item) {
 return $item['description'];
}, $data['data']['item']); 

CodePad.

• CMartins: Something is not right?! I'm getting wrong values on my array print_r($countries); Array ( [0] => g [1] => )
• alex: @Carlos You must be doing something wrong, because it definitely works.