Sending a JSON string as a HTTP query parameter?

Question

On a local version of a project I've been building, I've been sending a JSON string as a HTTP query parameter, and using the json_decode() function to decode the string back into a PHP array.

Locally, this was working fine (XAMPP) however when I upload these files to my clients server, they no longer work. I have diagnosed this as an issue where the parameter for which the JSON string is passed as e.g. o=[{"b_id":"1","p_ref_id":"SHAY899","b_name":"John Smith"}] isn't picked up in the global $_GET array.

I thought perhaps the version of PHP required to encode/decode JSON wasn't available, however I use the json_encode() in other parts of this project, so that can't be the issue. I'm wondering perhaps if it's a max character length issue, and if so how would I solve it (or where would I start at least)?

If not, any other help would be very greatly appreciated!!

Solution 1

Use:

$string = urlencode(json_encode($array));

and using the

$array = urldecode(json_decode($string));

to decode the string back into a PHP array.

Solution 2

Instead of using JSON use http_build_query(). It's already URL encoded and it might save you some space if that's the issue. It also handles multidimensional arrays.

Comments

[Mike Christensen]

If it's a really long URL, it's likely you're running into some sort of limit. Also, many web services (and frameworks) prevent certain characters on the URL for security reasons, to defend against XSS attacks for example. It's strange you don't get any sort of HTTP error though.

[Brad M]

Are you URL encoding your JSON string before making it a query string parameter?

[Kemebear]

@MikeChristensen How long would you say is a really long URL/where would this limit be set on a basic configuration (frameworkless) PHP, Apache or elsewhere?

[Mike Christensen]

I've seen 1024 characters as a default HTTP GET limit before. I don't know where that's set in Apache though..