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Working with Files, JSON and Booleans

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Working with Files, JSON and Booleans

Right now our pet data array is just hardcoded and not dynamic. Eventually, we’re going to pull this array from a database and let users add new pets to it. But before we get there, let’s pretend someone has given us a file that contains all of adorable pets available on AirPupNMeow.com. Our goal will be to read that file and turn its contents into a PHP array that looks just like the one we’re creating now by hand.

To make things easy, I’ve already prepared a file called pets.json, which I’ve put right inside my project directory.

Tip

You can find this file in the resources/ directory of the code download.

Open up this file and see what’s inside:

[
    {
        "name": "Chew Barka",
        "breed": "Bichon",
        "age": "2 years",
        "weight": 8,
        "bio": "The park, The pool or the Playground - I love to go anywhere! I am really great at... SQUIRREL!",
        "filename": "pet1.png"
    },
    {
        "name": "Spark Pug",
        "breed": "Pug",
        "age": "1.5 years",
        "weight": 11,
        "bio": "You want to go to the dog park in style? Then I am your pug!",
        "filename": "pet2.png"
    },
    {
        "name": "Pico de Gato",
        "breed": "Bengal",
        "age": "5 years",
        "weight": 9,
        "bio": "Oh hai, if you do not have a can of salmon I am not interested.",
        "filename": "pet3.png"
    },
    {
        "name": "Pancake",
        "age": "1 year",
        "weight": 9,
        "bio": "Treats and Snoozin!",
        "filename": "pancake.png",
        "breed": "Bulldog"
    }
]

Ok, let’s step back and talk about JSON, which has nothing to do with PHP, except that PHP can read it. JSON is a text format that can be used to represent structured information, like pet details:

{
    "name": "Chew Barka",
    "breed": "Bichon",
    "age": "2 years",
    "weight": 8,
    "bio": "The park, The pool or the Playground - I love to go anywhere! I am really great at... SQUIRREL!","filename":"pet1.png"
}

In fact, any PHP array has a JSON string equivalent and we can turn PHP arrays into JSON and vice-versa. In fact, there’s a function called json_encode which takes an array and returns the equivalent JSON string. Let’s use it to see how our pet’s array would look:

var_dump(json_encode($pets));die;

When we refresh, we see the JSON that’s equivalent to our array. And in fact, this is exactly what we have in pets.json.

Tip

If you try this and your output looks a bit uglier, it’s because I have a Chrome plugin called JSONView that adds spaces so that the JSON is very readable. Like with PHP, spaces don’t make a difference in JSON. So, these two strings are equivalent, but the second is easier on the eyes!

{"name": "Chew Barka","breed":"Bichon"}
{
    "name": "Chew Barka",
    "breed": "Bichon"
}

The reason JSON exists is because squiggly braces are awesome! Or maybe it’s so that different systems can communicate. Imagine if our website saved files that were sent off and read by some completely different application. JSON is magical because it can be read by PHP or any other language, like Ruby, Python or JavaScript. So even if that other application is built by a bunch of puppies, they’ll be able to read our information. So, JSON is a great way to share data.

Back in PHP, let’s pretend that there’s already some other part of our site where users can submit new pets and that when they do, this pets.json file is being updated. Our job right now then is just to read its contents and display some pretty pet faces.

Reading and Opening Files

So first, how can we load the contents of a file in PHP? The answer is with the file_get_contents function. When we pull up its documentation, we can see how easy it is. Its only required argument is a filename. It opens up that file and returns its contents to us as a string.

Note

Remember that arguments surrounded by [] are optional. The optional arguments to file_get_contents are rarely used.

Easy! Let’s use it and set the contents to a new variable! To see if it’s working, we’ll use our trusty var_dump:

$petsJson = file_get_contents('pets.json');
var_dump($petsJson);die;

When we refresh, we see the beautiful JSON string!

Warning and Errors in PHP

To experiment, let’s change the filename and see what happens if the file doesn’t exist:

$petsJson = file_get_contents('dinosaurs.json');
var_dump($petsJson);die;

this time, we see a warning from PHP:

Warning: file_get_contents(dinosaurs.json): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /path/to/index.php on line 16

PHP has both errors and warnings when things go wrong. The only difference is that if the code mistake isn’t too bad, PHP just gives us a warning and tries to keep executing our code.

Tip

PHP also has notices, which act just like warnings.

Booleans: True and False

Here it continues, and executes our var_dump, which returns false. If we look at the documentation again, we see that file_get_contents returns the contents of the file as a string or it returns false if it couldn’t read the file. false is called a Boolean, which is our fourth PHP data type. To review, we have:

  1. Strings, like $var = 'Hello World';
  2. Numbers, like $var = 5;. And actually, numbers are sub-divided into integers, like 5, and floats, which have decimals like 5.12. But most of the time in PHP, you don’t care about this.
  3. Arrays, like $var = array('puppy1', 'puppy2', 4);
  4. And now our 4th type: Booleans. Booleans are simple because there are only two possible values: true and false:
$fileExists = false;
$iLikeKittens = true;

Like with the other 3 data types, we can assign Booleans to variables and functions can return Booleans. file_get_contents returns a string or false, which we now know is a boolean type.

Decoding JSON into an Array

Phew! Let’s get back to our furry friends. First, fix the filename. Remember that the JSON contents we’re reading from the file are a string and what we really want is to transform that JSON string into a PHP array. We used json_encode to turn an array into JSON, so it makes sense that we can use json_decode to go the other direction:

$petsJson = file_get_contents('pets.json');
$pets = json_decode($petsJson);
var_dump($pets);die;

When we refresh, it mostly looks right. But instead of an array, it says something about a “stdClass”. This is a PHP object, which you don’t need to worry about now. Instead, if we look at the json_decode docs, we see it has an optional second argument, which is a bool or Boolean that defaults to false. If we change this to true, the function should return an associative array:

$petsJson = file_get_contents('pets.json');
$pets = json_decode($petsJson, true);
var_dump($pets);die;

Perfect! This is the exact array we were building by hand, so remove that along with the var_dump statement:

<?php
    $petsJson = file_get_contents('pets.json');
    $pets = json_decode($petsJson, true);

    // delete all the other $pet1 and $pets variables

    $pets = array_reverse($pets);

    $cleverWelcomeMessage = 'All the love, none of the crap!';
    $pupCount = count($pets);
?>

When we refresh, our page is back! The JSON string is read from the file and then converted into a PHP array. Our code is ready to iterate over each pet in that array and print out its information by using each pet’s keys. This works because the information in the JSON file exactly matches the PHP array we had before.

If we changed the filename key for each pet in our data source pets.json, then we would also need to change it in our application to match:

[
    {
        "image": "pancake.png",
    },
]
<!-- ... index.php -->

<?php foreach ($pets as $cutePet) { ?>
    <div class="col-md-4 pet-list-item">
        <!-- ... -->

        <img src="/images/<?php echo $cutePet['image']; ?>" class="img-rounded">

        <!-- ... -->
    </div>
<?php } ?>

Directory Path to a File

Refresh to make sure this still works. Before we finish, let’s play with the PHP file-handling functions a little. First, move pets.json into a new directory called data and refresh. Oh no, things blow up!

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /path/to/index.php on line 87

PHP no longer finds our file, which sets off a chain reaction of terrible things! First, file_get_contents returns false. Of course, false isn’t a valid JSON string, so json_decode chokes as well and doesn’t return an array like it normally would. Finally, we try to loop with foreach, but $pets isn’t even an array. Woh! The moral is that sometimes a mistake in one spot will result in an error afterwards. So don’t just look at the line number of the error: look at the lines above it as well.

To fix this, we can just change our file path to data/pets.json:

$petsJson = file_get_contents('data/pets.json');

When we refresh, everyone is happy again! Notice that file_get_contents looks for files relative to the one being executed. We’ll play with file paths more later, just don’t think it’s magic. PHP is happily stupid: it looks for files right in the directory of this one.

Note

You can also pass an absolute file path to PHP, like /var/pets.json or C:\pets.json.

Saving to a File

And what if you want to save data to a file? If we go back to the docs for file_get_contents, you’ll see a related function: file_put_contents. It’s also really simple: you give it a filename and a string, and it saves that string to that file. I’ll let you try this on your own in the activities. Don’t worry about its optional arguments.

Other ways to Read and Save Files

PHP has a bunch of other file-handling functions beyond file_get_contents and file_put_contents. These include fopen, fread, fwrite and fclose. For now, just forget these exist. Except for when you’re dealing with very large files, these functions accomplish the exact same thing as file_get_contents and file_put_contents, they’re just harder and weirder to use. To make matters worse, most tutorials on the web teach you to use these functions. Madness! You’ll probably use them someday, but forget about them now. Working with files in PHP we need only our 2 handy functions.