How to Properly Read JSON POST Data in PHP for Webhook Integrations?

Reading JSON Post Data in PHP for Webhook Integration

Integrating with external APIs often involves receiving HTTP POST requests containing JSON payloads. In PHP, extracting and parsing JSON data from these requests can be slightly tricky. In this article, we'll explore a common issue faced while reading JSON post data and provide a solution.

Problem Scenario

A PHP script is registered as an endpoint to receive JSON payloads via HTTP POST requests. Yet, accessing and manipulating the JSON data proves challenging, despite successfully receiving the requests. Common approaches like $_POST or file_get_contents('php://input') fail to extract the data as expected.

Solution: Extracting and Parsing JSON Data

To resolve this issue, a simple yet effective approach is:

$inputJSON = file_get_contents('php://input');
$input = json_decode($inputJSON, TRUE);

Here's how it works:

• file_get_contents('php://input'): Reads and retrieves the raw JSON payload from the input stream.
• json_decode($inputJSON, TRUE): Converts the raw JSON data into an associative array. By setting the TRUE parameter, the JSON object is returned as an array instead of an object.

Example:

Consider a JSON payload:

{
    "name": "John Doe",
    "age": 30
}

Using the above solution, the following code:

$inputJSON = file_get_contents('php://input');
$input = json_decode($inputJSON, TRUE);

Would assign the following array to the $input variable:

Array
(
    ["name"] => "John Doe",
    ["age"] => 30
)

This process successfully extracts and parses the JSON payload into an easily accessible array format.

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