[RESOLVED] Grabbing data from a page.

LEARNING-PHP

Hey,

I am trying to grab the data from http://www.imdbapi.com/?t=True%20Grit&y=1969 and put it into variables so i can insert it into a database can someone show me the best way to do this or a way that works?

Thanks LP

bradgrafelman

That data is in a common format called JSON; see [man]json_decode/man.

LEARNING-PHP

Thank you for your quick reply. I will read up on it now.

How do i grab the data from the webpage? any example?

Thanks LP

bradgrafelman

Since there's nothing special about that "API" (i.e. you simply perform a GET request with the desired parameters in the query string), you could use [man]file_get_contents/man or get fancy and use [man]cURL[/man].

LEARNING-PHP

$jsonurl = "http://www.imdbapi.com/?t=True%20Grit&y=1969";
$json = file_get_contents($jsonurl,0,null,null);
$json_output = json_decode($json);

I have this so far but i cant seem to get the values out just keeping getting errors?

Thanks LP

bradgrafelman

Given that 0 isn't a bool, null isn't a valid resource for the context, and null isn't an integer offset, I'd say the problem is likely caused by your [man]file_get_contents/man function call.

Why are you even specifying those parameters at all? Also, it might be helpful in the future for you to post the exact errors you're getting rather than making us guess as to what they are. 😉

LEARNING-PHP

<?php
$url='http://www.imdbapi.com/?t=True%20Grit&y=1969'; 
$json = get_data($url);

var_dump(json_decode($json));
var_dump(json_decode($json, true));


/* gets the data from a URL */
function get_data($url)
{
$ch = curl_init();
$timeout = 5;
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL,$url);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT,$timeout);
$data = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
return $data;
}
?>

Ok this is grabbing the data and vardumping it now. All i want to know how to access certain bits for example $title = JSON TITLE? i cant find how to access certain bits.

Yeah sorry about that im still learning.

Thanks LP

bradgrafelman

Find some basic tutorials on how to use an [man]array[/man] in PHP (or just read the manual page).

EDIT: Note that this is assuming you're having [man]json_decode[/man] return an [man]array[/man] and not an [man]object[/man] (in which case you'd want to see the manual page: [man]oop5.properties[/man], as you'll be wanting the $obj->property syntax).

LEARNING-PHP

Ok i solved this now, thanks for your time and help i will close the thread. 🙂

Thanks LP