Parse a json array in PHP to get the required values - api

Question

I am using a API provided by this website
http://pnrapi.alagu.net/
By using this API, we can get PNR status of our indian railways.
I am using CURL to make a call and get the page content which is something like this, in an array format:
Array ( [url] => http://pnrapi.alagu.net/api/v1.0/pnr/4563869832 [content_type] => application/json;charset=utf-8 [http_code] => 200 [header_size] => 185 [request_size] => 130 [filetime] => -1 [ssl_verify_result] => 0 [redirect_count] => 0 [total_time] => 2.906 [namelookup_time] => 0 [connect_time] => 0.312 [pretransfer_time] => 0.312 [size_upload] => 0 [size_download] => 548 [speed_download] => 188 [speed_upload] => 0 [download_content_length] => 548 [upload_content_length] => 0 [starttransfer_time] => 2.906 [redirect_time] => 0 [certinfo] => Array ( ) [primary_ip] => 50.57.204.234 [primary_port] => 80 [local_ip] => 192.168.1.10 [local_port] => 60105 [redirect_url] => [errno] => 0 [errmsg] => [content] => {"status":"OK","data":{"train_number":"16178","chart_prepared":false,"pnr_number":"4563869832","train_name":"ROCKFORT EXPRES","travel_date":{"timestamp":1369506600,"date":"26-5-2013"},"from":{"code":"TPJ","name":"TIRUCHIRAPPALLI JUNCTION","time":"22:20"},"to":{"code":"MS","name":"CHENNAI EGMORE","time":"05:15"},"alight":{"code":"MS","name":"CHENNAI EGMORE","time":"05:15"},"board":{"code":"TPJ","name":"TIRUCHIRAPPALLI JUNCTION","time":"22:20","timestamp":1369587000},"class":"2A","passenger":[{"seat_number":"W/L 39,RLGN","status":"W/L 27"}]}} )
but when I go to the URL http://pnrapi.alagu.net/api/v1.0/pnr/4563869832 , it gives me output as shown below:
{"status":"OK","data":{"train_number":"16178","chart_prepared":false,"pnr_number":"4563869832","train_name":"ROCKFORT EXPRES","travel_date":{"timestamp":1369506600,"date":"26-5-2013"},"from":{"code":"TPJ","name":"TIRUCHIRAPPALLI JUNCTION","time":"22:20"},"to":{"code":"MS","name":"CHENNAI EGMORE","time":"05:15"},"alight":{"code":"MS","name":"CHENNAI EGMORE","time":"05:15"},"board":{"code":"TPJ","name":"TIRUCHIRAPPALLI JUNCTION","time":"22:20","timestamp":1369587000},"class":"2A","passenger":[{"seat_number":"W/L 39,RLGN","status":"W/L 27"}]}}
Now, it seems that output on my web page with curl have got some extra text which is in the start as you can see both the outputs above.
Well, my question is, how can I get the values from above array.
I am talking about the array output which I'm getting on my page using CURL, which looks like this:
Array (
[url] => http://pnrapi.alagu.net/api/v1.0/pnr/4563869832
[content_type] => application/json;charset=utf-8
[http_code] => 200
[header_size] => 185
[request_size] => 130
[filetime] => -1
[ssl_verify_result] => 0
[redirect_count] => 0
[total_time] => 2.906
[namelookup_time] => 0
[connect_time] => 0.312
[pretransfer_time] => 0.312
[size_upload] => 0
[size_download] => 548
[speed_download] => 188
[speed_upload] => 0
[download_content_length] => 548
[upload_content_length] => 0
[starttransfer_time] => 2.906
[redirect_time] => 0
[certinfo] => Array ( )
[primary_ip] => 50.57.204.234
[primary_port] => 80
[local_ip] => 192.168.1.10
[local_port] => 60105
[redirect_url] =>
[errno] => 0
[errmsg] => [content] => {"status":"OK","data":{"train_number":"16178","chart_prepared":false,"pnr_number":"4563869832","train_name":"ROCKFORT EXPRES","travel_date":{"timestamp":1369506600,"date":"26-5-2013"},"from":{"code":"TPJ","name":"TIRUCHIRAPPALLI JUNCTION","time":"22:20"},"to":{"code":"MS","name":"CHENNAI EGMORE","time":"05:15"},"alight":{"code":"MS","name":"CHENNAI EGMORE","time":"05:15"},"board":{"code":"TPJ","name":"TIRUCHIRAPPALLI JUNCTION","time":"22:20","timestamp":1369587000},"class":"2A","passenger":[{"seat_number":"W/L 39,RLGN","status":"W/L 27"}]}} )
Code in my PHP page is:
<?php
function get_web_page( $url )
{
$options = array(
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true, // return web page
CURLOPT_HEADER => false, // don't return headers
CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => true, // follow redirects
CURLOPT_ENCODING => "", // handle all encodings
CURLOPT_USERAGENT => "spider", // who am i
CURLOPT_AUTOREFERER => true, // set referer on redirect
CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT => 120, // timeout on connect
CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 120, // timeout on response
CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10, // stop after 10 redirects
);
$ch = curl_init( $url );
curl_setopt_array( $ch, $options );
$content = curl_exec( $ch );
$err = curl_errno( $ch );
$errmsg = curl_error( $ch );
$header = curl_getinfo( $ch );
curl_close( $ch );
$header['errno'] = $err;
$header['errmsg'] = $errmsg;
$header['content'] = $content;
return $header;
}
$pnr = get_web_page('http://pnrapi.alagu.net/api/v1.0/pnr/4563869832');
echo "<code>";
print_r($pnr);
echo "</code>";
?>
I only need the values under "content" which are train number, train name, travel date etc.
So, what would be best way to extract this information into each variable?
Like I want it like this:
$train_no = [some code];
$train_name = [some_code];
and so on...
Thanks in advance.
I tried this:
echo $pnr['content'];
and the output I got is:
{"status":"OK",
"data":"train_number":"16178",
"chart_prepared":false,
"pnr_number":"4563869832",
"train_name":"ROCKFORT EXPRES",
"travel_date":{"timestamp":1369506600,"date":"26-5-2013"},
"from":{"code":"TPJ","name":"TIRUCHIRAPPALLI JUNCTION","time":"22:20"},
"to":{"code":"MS","name":"CHENNAI EGMORE","time":"05:15"},
"alight":{"code":"MS","name":"CHENNAI EGMORE","time":"05:15"},
"board":{"code":"TPJ","name":"TIRUCHIRAPPALLI JUNCTION","time":"22:20","timestamp":1369587000},
"class":"2A","passenger":[{"seat_number":"W/L 39,RLGN","status":"W/L 27"}]}}
Now can any one give me an idea about how can I fetch unique values from above array?

Answer 1

I'm not sure where the JSON string is. But let's say it's the $pnr variable.
$json = json_decode($pnr, true);
$train_no = $json["data"]["train_number"];
$train_name = $json["data"]["train_name"];
Updated:
If you don't need all the other things you can do something like the following:
$npr = file_get_contents(url);
and then run the code above.

Answer 2

You're looking through the header, where you should be looking at the content. Return $content instead in your function and then you can parse out the response:
function get_web_page( $url ) {
$options = array(
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true, // return web page
CURLOPT_HEADER => false, // don't return headers
CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => true, // follow redirects
CURLOPT_ENCODING => "", // handle all encodings
CURLOPT_USERAGENT => "spider", // who am i
CURLOPT_AUTOREFERER => true, // set referer on redirect
CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT => 120, // timeout on connect
CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 120, // timeout on response
CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10, // stop after 10 redirects
);
$ch = curl_init( $url );
curl_setopt_array( $ch, $options );
$content = json_decode( curl_exec( $ch ) );
curl_close( $ch );
return array(
'train_no' => $content->data->train_number,
'train_name' => $content->data->train_name,
);
}
$pnr = get_web_page('http://pnrapi.alagu.net/api/v1.0/pnr/4563869832');
echo "<pre>" . print_r($pnr, true) . "</pre>";