In this article, we are going to see how to use cURL to Get JSON data and Decode JSON data in PHP.
cURL:
- It stands for Client URL.
- It is a command line tool for sending and getting files using URL syntax.
- cURL allows communicating with other servers using HTTP, FTP, Telnet, and more.
Approach:
- We are going to fetch JSON data from one of free website, which gives JSON data for testing i.e. reqres.in
- First, we initialize curl using curl_init() method.
- Sending GET request to reqres.in server using curl_setopt() method with CURLOPT_URL to get json data.
- After that, we have to tell curl to store json data in a variable instead of dumping on screen. This is done by using CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER parameter in curl_setopt() function.
- Execute curl using curl_exec() method.
- At last, close the curl using curl_close() method.
Example:
PHP
<?php// Initializing curl$curl = curl_init(); // Sending GET request to reqres.in// server to get JSON datacurl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, // Telling curl to store JSON// data in a variable instead// of dumping on screencurl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true); // Executing curl$response = curl_exec($curl);// Checking if any error occurs // during request or notif($e = curl_error($curl)) { echo $e;} else { // Decoding JSON data $decodedData = json_decode($response, true); // Outputting JSON data in // Decoded form var_dump($decodedData);}// Closing curlcurl_close($curl);?> |
Output:
GET Request using cURL
